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/Ibental Calisthenics 



OR 



PHYSIOLOGICAL • MEMORY 

BY 

Rev. 6. A. SCHRAM 

he Natural Pome^s and Pf oeesses of Atten> 

tion and ^eeolleetion Placed undei* 

Intelligent and Peffeet 

Control of the 

UJill 

^ MIND -WANDERING QUICKLY CURED ^ 

The Pooue* to Iiearn and Heeolleet more than 
•^doubled immediately • 



COPYRIGHT 1892. 



m 



Mental Calisthenics 

OR 

PHYSIOLOGICAL MEMORY 



THE NATURAL LAWS AND PRINCIPLES GOVEENING THE INTELLECTUAL 
PROCESSES. 

IT IS POSITIVELY A NEW DEPARTURE ON THE SUBJECT OF ATTENTION 
AND MEMORY. 

NO MNEMONICAL TRICKS U8ED. 

ATTENTION ENGAGED ONLY WITH THAT WHICH IS TO 
BE LEARNED. 

I THE METHOD APPLIES TO EVERYTHING THAT CAN POSSIBLY ENGAGE 
ATTENTION. 




Ji 

Rev. G. A. SCHRAM 

"_ ^7Ws X 

CHICAGO: ( C 

PUBLISHED FOR THE AUTHOR 
1892 




Press of K. R. McCabe & Co., Chicago. 



c^D 



*£ 



r 



COPYRIGHT 1892. 
(All rights reserved.) 



PREFACE 



In presenting this little book to the reader, I 
feel that a few words by way of introduction will not 
be amiss. 

I am fully aware of the boldness of my under- 
taking to write upon a subject of so vast importance, 
and. withal, one whose practical side has so long 
evaded the pursuit of the thousands who have tried 
to capture and bring it forth to the light of day. 

I apprehend that the first thought of the reader 
may be to consign the book to the fate of the 
"mnemonical systems" preceding, "whose name is 
legion," but are generally worse than useless. 

But trusting to the forbearance of the reader, 
where he does not find the subject put with sufficient 
perspicuity and fullness to suit him, I send it forth 
with a confidence born of personal verification. 

A few years ago I found myself a wreck in 
nerves and memory. I had so completely lost the 
power of sustained mental effort, that for two years 
I could not read a column in a newspaper. This 



IV PREFACE. 

was brought about by such fool-hardiness as study- 
ing sixteen hours a day for months in succession. 

My power of prolonged continuity in study, is. I 
believe, permanently gone. Two hours of contin- 
uous application without rest is all I can endure at 
this date, fifteen years after my breakdown. Yet 
in these two hours I can do more effective study by 
the method set forth in this book, than I could do 
in six hours before my loss of strength, and before I 
discovered my new method. 

I am the more confident, because similar results 
are produced in other persons by my method. 

I have not aimed at treating the subject exhaus- 
tively. 

The earlier pages of the book are given some- 
what to theoretical aspects of the subject, but the 
latter part is practical. 

The reader may pass at once to the practical parts 
if he wishes to do so, and will find equally good 
results, if he follows my directions. 

I have found it difficult to decide just what to 
write and what to leave unsaid. 

There may be points on which some may desire 
fuller explanations or instructions; I therefore hold 
myself in readiness, as far as possible, to answer any 



PREFACE. V 

question in harmony with the purposes of the book, 
and without cost to the student beyond postage. 

The reader will find some repetition in the book. 
This I have indulged in, that I may the more fully 
impress certain truths vital to the subject and method 
set forth. 

The moment the reader gets the meaning of the 
book and applies it, he will realize the soundness of 
the principles presented, and yet he will find that it 
unfolds more and more in its endless application to 
all our intellectual activities. 

Again let me urge that if any of my readers do 
not find that there is a wonderful improvement in 
their power to pay attention and to recollect, after 
carefully studying and using my method, they will 
immediately write to me explaining their difficulties. 

Non-improvement will be a proof that you have 
not understood nor applied my method. 

The Author. 



MENTAL CALISTHENICS. 



*<^} -^ P u P^ s ' no * critics. 

' J Do not class my methods with the hundreds 
of attempts made by. others to aid the memory by 
inventing devices to bolster and prop it up. 

Neither must it be supposed that I or any other 
person can give powers or faculties that the reader 
does not already possess. 

Many persons suppose that good and bad memory 
are alike natural endowments for which the possessor 
is not responsible, and cannot change. 

All natural memory is good and reliable. Bad 
memory is the result of artificial or perverted use of 
the natural powers and faculties, excepting in cases 
of nervous derangement, weak digestion, and poor 
blood. 

It is to point out nature's method that I have 
undertaken this work, having first verified the sound- 
ness of each principle and method presented. 



Z MENTAL CALISTHENICS. 

Having familiarized myself with nearly all the 
devices and tricks used by Mnemotechnists, I 
entirely discard their use as being burdensome, con- 
fusing, and hurtful. They are unnatural, and usu- 
ally productive of the very evils they profess to 
remedy or cure. Their authors seem never to 
have discovered how and what it is that we come 
to know in gaining knowledge, and what and how it 
is again made present to the mind in Recollection. 
This must first be understood, then each successive 
step will be easy, natural, and clear. 

I shall at once proceed to my work by asking 
and answering a few questions, hoping thereby to 
lead the reader by easy steps to grasp the basal 
truths of the following pages. 



CHAPTER I. 



^Dfyat is tfye Material of J{notolebge? 

IN a word it is anything of which we may become 
conscious, of which the world about us furn- 
ishes a great variety; objects to be seen, sounds to 
be heard, odors to be smelt, flavors to be tasted, 
pain or pleasure to be felt, etc. 

For the perception of these we are endowed with 
special senses, which constitute the machinery of the 
mind. This machinery is composed of sentient 
nerve matter, divided or arranged appropriately for 
the special uses intended, and having an exterior end 
organ, upon which the corresponding object of sense 
may act, and thus set up a commotion along the 
whole nerve-tract, and corresponding brain-centre. 
And it is really this nerve-commotion, or modified 
condition that the mind comes to perceive, # and not 

the object that has produced it. This will be clear 

3 



4 MENTAL CALISTHENICS; 

to the reader if lie will but think what would be the 
condition of the mind and the amount of knowledge 
if we had none of these special senses, nor any 
sensitive nervous organs whatever. We could 
evidently know nothing. 

But the Creator has wonderfully adapted us to 
our environment, by giving us a nervous mechanism 
— divided into special senses, by the proper use of 
which the mind may become conscious of, pay atten- 
tion to, come clearly to perceive, and afterwards to 
re-present the same before the mind without having 
it actually present to the end-organs of sense ( eyes, 
ears, etc.). Absence of one of these senses from 
birth prevents all knowledge, such as it might 
have been a channel for the reception of ; e. g. : one 
born blind has no true conception of what it is to 
see light, color, form. He may feel, but that is 
entirely different. 

So of deaf mutes, sound to them does not exist. 
They can feel a jar or the beating of a drum, but 
cannot hear. 

From the foregoing we gather three facts : 

1. That the primary matter of our knowledge is 



OR PHYSIOLOGICAL MEMORY. 5 

composed of what may be seen, heard, felt, tasted, 
smelt, etc. 

2. That the only media of communication between 
these and the mind are our" special senses, or, in a 
word, the nervous system, in a normal condition, or 
sufficiently so to admit of the mind's perception of 
the kind of nerve-commotion, and which of the 
special senses it is that is so impressed. 

3. That the kind and clearness of our perceptions 
and knowledge is limited by the kind and degree of 
nervous action, and the clearness of our perception 
of the same. 

Personal knowledge of the world about us 
requires but attention to the impressions received 
through the nervous organism. But man's social 
conditions and relations have required some means of 
conveying to one mind what was present to another. 
This might be done in one of two ways. 

I 1 1 By presenting to the senses of the one that 
which was formerly present to the senses of the 
other, and is now present only to mind and the inner 
nerve mechanism. 

( 2 ) He might use such gestures as would pre- 



6 MENTAL CALISTHENICS; 

sent the same before the mind, as the deaf mute 
does. 

(3) He might use sounds, whose meaning had 
first been fixed by being associated with the object 
indicated. 

(4) Certain marks or written signs might be 
used whose meaning had been fixed. 

In this work I am concerned chiefly with word- 
signs — spoken, and written. 

Now a word, whether it comes to us as a sound 
impressing the ear, or as a written sign impressing 
the eye, is in itself simply a sense-object (i. e. some- 
thing that can impress one of the special senses i : as 
such it may mean nothing to us and convey nothing 
to the mind other than the fact of the peculiar ear 
or sight impression it produces. 

But what is a word in its common use? "A 
sign of an idea, 11 says one. Not so, but it is a sign 
of a sense object: nothing more; i. e., over against 
every word of our own or any other language, there 
stands a sense-object, and vice versa, e. </.. I say 
horse, and instantly there is presented before your 
mind the kind of an animal we drive before the 



OR PHYSIOLOGICAL MEMORY. i 

buggy. If I say white horse, the same is true with 
the addition of color which you see in the shape of 
a horse. 

If I say the horse neighs, the sense object is still 
more extended and his neighing becomes a sense- 
object to the ear, and the act of neighing a sense- 
object to sight. 

Hence words, whether spoken or written, are but 
arbitrary signs taken, to re-present to mind, things, 
qualities, relations, actions, etc., that have been 
previously present to mind with such words as signs 
of the same. 

These, and not the words, are the real and ulti- 
mate objects of perception, to be made present and 
distinct before the mind by means of the words. 
There may be the same thought, or sense-object 
presented to miud by different words, or words of 
different languages. Tree means to me, or rather 
brings to me, that object which grows on the lawn. 
But I hear two Germans talking and they say bourn. 
I am told that baum is the word for that same 
object. The object of which I know is that form 
growing on the lawn. 



o MENTAL CALISTHENICS; 

To a person of any other language the same 
object would be presented or represented to mind by 
the word in his language used as a name for that 
object. Knowledge is the same knowledge in all 
languages. 

If the words we see or hear are new to us, they 
present nothing to m'ind but their form and the let- 
ters they contain, and can never be understood until 
their corresponding sense-object is in some way pre- 
sented to mind. The two then become associated 
together as impressions, each becoming a part of one 
complete complex record in memory. 

Hence all understood word signs have their inter- 
pretation in the re-presentation of the corresponding 
object, and so a process of recollection is carried on 
as we see or hear familiar words. The sentences 
may convey different complete notions from any pre- 
viously heard, but they are composed of well-known 
thought-objects constructed into new forms. 

I shall show later that this tends greatly to 
produce mind-wandering. 

The one first thing to be clearly understood, and 
for which I have tried to prepare the student, is that 



OR PHYSIOLOGICAL MEMORY. 9 

the mind primarily engages itself through the senses, 
with whatever stimulates these senses. And these 
stimuli I will call (for the sake of having a conven- 
ient common name for them) Sense Objects, and 
for that which is represented to mind in recollection 
I use the term Thought Objects. 

What is seen is a Sense-Object to sight, sounds 
are sense-objects to hearing, and odor to smell, a 
flavor to taste, etc. 

So we may say that a perception is a distinct 
presentation of a Sense-Object to the mind, through 
the special senses engaged therewith. 

A Kecollection (or re-perception) is a presenta- 
tion before the mind of that which was at some past 
time, but is not now actually present to it, but is 
represented by something corresponding closely 
therewith — sometimes called a mental image, but 
the mind does not deal with it, nor think of it as an 
image during the mental processes of recollection, 
and of intelligent reading or listening, but it treats 
it as the veritable sense-object. As the whole 
process is entirely internal, and independent of the 
external object and the outer end-organ of sense, I 



10 MENTAL CALISTHENICS. 

have termed it Thought Object. Do not confound 
these two terms. 

That I may make the lessons the better under- 
stood, and prepare the students to take each step 
in their progress intelligently, I shall first make a 
brief 

I. Analysis of Recollection. 

II. I will show the process in Recollective Syn- 
thesis, or building from the most indefinite state of 
consciousness of impression to distinct perception 
and power to reproduce the same before the mind 
afterwards in Recollection. 

III. I will explain the law of Reciprocal Predi- 
cation, or the law governing the Recollective process. 

IY. The Golden Link. 

V. Certainty of Recollection. 

VI. Exercises and suggestions. 



CHAPTEK II. 



2\nalgsi5 of 7^ ec ollection. 

1. What is a Kecollection ? 

The common idea is that thought is a kind of 
entity acquired by the mind — that as such it some 
how exists in the mind, perhaps like documents 
stowed away in pigeon holes for future use, aud that 
Recollection hunts them up and brings them out 
from their hiding place when required, somewhat as 
one would go to his library and find a favorite book 
when needed. 

The old philosophers treated the subject much in 
the same way. "With them memory was the reten- 
tion of ideas unconsciously in the mind, and Recol- 
lection was the act of bringing them back to con- 
sciousness. But this is both untrue, and impossible. 

To ask, "Where is the thought you had at some 

11 



12 MENTAL CALISTHENICS; 

previous time?" can receive no true answer but 
Nowhere. 

What is an idea or thought? Surely it has no 
material existence, that the mind should be able to 
treat it as a boy does his peanuts when he puts them 
in his pocket for future use. 

Is it not evident that thoughts and ideas bear 
the same relation to the mind that movements and 
definite acts do to the muscular powers! Where, 
then, is the action of yesterday ? Nowhere of course. 
It is past, you have not hoarded it up, nor could you 
do so. But you may repeat it, and so may the mind 
think the same again by having the same processes 
which led thereto, repeated. Thought is the mind 
in action — ideas are the result of such mental 
activity, during the process of perceiving, analyz- 
ing — constructing the sense objects presented 
through the senses, or in re-perceiving, re-analyzing, 
and re-constructing the same when presented to 
mind in Recollection. 

By a little introspection, or study of one's own 
mental operations in recollecting, the following will 
be apparent, viz: 



OR PHYSIOLOGICAL MEMORY. 13 

(1) That in Recollection we get a past thought 
or idea before the mind, or in the mind again, i. e., 
we again think the same thoughts that we thought 
at some former time. 

(2) That back of and prior to the thought, 
there is present to mind a thonght-object, about 
which we think, from which the thought is insepa- 
rable and without the presence of which, the thought 
is impossible. 

The Thought-Object comes to mind first, then 
the processes of thought begin, but end or change 
in subject as soon as the Thought-Object vanishes 
from mental vision, or is changed for another. 

(3) That in every distinct recollection there is 
a representation to mind of all that was previously 
present to it through the senses, and in the same 
order of parts, and that, too, not by bringing the past 
up to the present, hut by translating one's self to the 
past, i. e., one seems to be again at the same place 
— surrounded by the same objects, feeling the same 
experiences, and always in the same relation to 
one another as when first witnessed, and there is the 
same ability to contemplate one feature in particular 



14 MENTAL CALISTHENICS; 

or all in general, and in any order desired, as from 
first to last or from last to first — or from a given 
point either way. We also find that as we thus 
re-perceive or recollect, we not only experience a 
repetition of former thought, but may extend 
thought respecting these Thought-Objects. 

We can exercise a creative, or constructive force 
of mind and put these familiar objects into new 
combinations and relations so as to produce an alto- 
gether different whole. 

( Here lies the basis of imagination. ) 
To illustrate No. 3, take the following: 
I once visited Niagara Falls, with my sister. 
And now as I recall that visit, I seem to be with the 
same sister standing in the same spot, viewing the 
falls — in every direction about me are the same 
objects — and as each scene is repeated before the 
mind the same thoughts recur. 

These objects bear the same relation to one an- 
other before my mind now as then — the eye passes 
from one object to another in the same order, i. e.. 
each part joins each other part now as then — thus 
making up the complete scene. 



OR PHYSIOLOGICAL MEMORY. 15 

Nor is it a matter of sight only. I heard the 
great roar of the cataract, and this is repeated in my 
recollection not as a thought only, but as a roaring 
then comes the thought or idea. 

80, too, of the other senses. 

Again, each Thought- Object has its individual 
quality as then. It appears before the mind 
possessing that quality, e. g. The river had not 
only banks, but they were perpendicular. I mentally 
see them again in recollection. The falls were of 
great volume, and curved; a dense, whitish mist 
arose, a beautiful rainbow was reflected from them, 
so that every thing or quality becomes objective 
to the particular sense concerned. But if objective, 
then there must be a certain degree of correspond- 
ing activity in that part of our organism through 
which these are originally perceived. (See Prof. 
Geo. T. Lad, in Physio. Psychology. M. Ribot, 
on Diseases of Memory, and others of recent date. ) 

(4) There is usually a conscious effort, in 
Recollection, to revive or repeat the conditions 
under which the original perception was acquired, 
an effort to translate one's-self to the time, place, 



16 MENTAL CALISTHENICS; 

circumstances, surroundings, etc. Having accom- 
plished this, or probably, too, in accomplishing it, 
there is a more or less conscious effort to see, hear, 
feel, etc., that of which we are in search; and yet 
the effort is usually entirely confined to an internal 
effort. The outer organ of sense is seldom used in 
such case, never, indeed, unless the person con- 
cerned is actually surrounded by the original condi- 
tions. Thus a boy in school is asked to tell a num- 
ber that was written upon the blackboard yesterday, 
and he may look at the very spot on the board 
where he saw it written, but if asked the question 
out of school he mentally sees the board, its color, 
etc. — looks at that part upon which the number was 
written, then begins to arise into the field of mental 
vision, the objects (figures) that he saw on that part 
of the board yesterday. They come distinctly, not 
all at once, but as many together as were originally 
included in one act of perception. 

This effort to see, hear, etc., in trying to Recol- 
lect, is perfectly natural. It is an effort to have the 
same nervous action repeated that took place prior to, 
and continuing while the mind originally perceived. 



OR PHYSIOLOGICAL MEMORY. 17 

If this can be repeated, the same mental results 
will follow. This may be accomplished by a volun- 
tary effort of mind, beginning with the point of 
present view, and following a series of associated 
objects of sense until the desired link in the chain is 
reached, just as in recalling some scene or experience 
in travel we quickly pass along over the familiar 
steps till we reach that particular stage desired. 

Or it may be involuntary, in which case what is 
now present to mind has resulted from nervous 
activities similar to those originally produced by 
some other sense-object. Thus the seeing or recol- 
lection of O, may revive the recollection of Q, 
because, excepting the tail, they are alike : or to read 
of a journey may revive the recollection of one once 
taken by yourself. Or it may result from the fact 
that what is present to mind once formed part of a 
complex object of perception, e. g., I once saw in a 
trades' procession, a mottled soap firm led by a man 
on a pure white horse, stained all over with spots of 
blue, and ever since when I see a white horse in 
such a position there is revived in recollection the 
white horse and his blue spots. 



18 MENTAL CALISTHENICS; 

The white horse that I may see to-day has 
revived a part of the same nerve commotion pro- 
duced by the blue-white horse originally, and so the 
remainder of the neural action as a part of the 
original is reproduced and thus the mind reads it — 
or rather reperceives it. Another, and familiar illus- 
tration is found in a lapsus Ungues, — beginning to 
pronounce a word correctly but ending with a sylla- 
ble that makes it a word of entirely different mean- 
ing from that intended. e. g., A person of my 
acquaintance wished to say that a certain thing was 
magnet ized, but he said it was magnified. Occasion- 
ally similarity of sound will for the same reason 
result disastrously. I overheard two ministers 
laughing about another, who intended to recite the 
stanza, 

"Soon as the evening shades prevail, 

The moon takes up the wondrous tale, 

And nightly to the listening earth 

Proclaims the story of her birth." 

But alas! he got switched off on the similarity of 
sound, even without sense, and said: 

" Soon as the evening shades prevail, 
The moon sticks up his wondrous tail," etc. 



OR PHYSIOLOGICAL MEMORY. 19 

(5) Personal experience shows that we never 
recognize a thought as a recollection whose object 
does not come to us (a) without the outward stimu- 
lus of the sense-object, and (6) when it is so repre- 
sented it is familiar to us as belonging to past time, 
and certain associations with place, and other Objects. 

(c) That which has been perceived when the physi- 
cal conditions of the body were the best, the blood 
richest, and most active, was most easily recollected. 

(d) That we find it hard to recollect when the vital 
forces are weak from any cause, such as indigestion, 
poor blood, weariness, nervous derangement, either 
from disease, fear, or extreme excitement. 

In concluding this chapter I make the following 
summary statement of the conditions necessary to 
every recollection. 

1. A highly sensitive nervous organism suscepti- 
ble of a great variety of stimulus. 

2. Sense-Objects or stimuli, which through the 
end-organs of sense produce nervous activities in the 
corresponding nerve particles, and tracts. 

3. An original impression or nervous modifica- 



20 MENTAL CALISTHENICS; 

tion, and adjustment to the new conditions resulting 
from the stimuli. 

4.. A Record, or abiding modification of the nerve 
particles concerned, so that there is an aptitude to 
repetition of the same activities whenever appropriate 
stimuli are present. 

5. A revival of the record, or repetition of the 
original nervous behavior, and its perception by the 
mind, thus producing that condition known as a 
recollection. 

We may, therefore, still more briefly state the 
stages or parts in Recollection, as being: 

(1) An original impression of the nervous me- 
chanism concerned. 

(2) A permanent modification and adjustment 
of the same to the impression. 

(3) A revival or repetition of the original be- 
havior of the same nerve particles concerned. 

The possibility of Recollection depends upon an 
acquired tendency of the nerve-particles to repeat a 
former mode of action, because there cannot be 
represented to mind what was not previously pre- 



OB PHYSIOLOGICAL MEMORY. 21 

sent to it, and it cannot be represented without 
the original nerve commotion being first revived. 

The student will find that the following pages 
will make the foregoing chapter clear to his mind. 

He is now to begin the more practical part of 
my subject. I therefore earnestly beg of him to 
proceed only as fast as he is able to verify to himself 
the naturalness and effectiveness of my methods. 

All questions asked by mail concerning parts that 
may not be clear, I will take great pleasure in answer- 
ing, and without cost to the student, excepting postage. 



CHAPTER III. 



TJecollecttoe ^gntfyesis. 

IN this chapter I desire to present, not a device, 
or plan, or invention, or series of tricks, by which 
the student may do some astonishing things, but 
nature's method, the method pursued instinctively 
by all until they are led from it by some of the arti- 
ficial tricks of teachers — or by the almost certain 
tendencies of learning from books and at second hand, 
generally. 

The first stage in the process of coming to know, 
and in being able to recollect is (for I hold that all 
we know is possible of recollection), 

I. A condition of impression. 

This is a phase of consciousness, but in its first 
stage very indefinite. It is simply consciousness that 
one is impressed or thrown into a condition of nerv- 

22 



OR PHYSIOLOGICAL MEMORY. 23 

ous action along the nerve-tracts of one or more of 
the special senses. 

This nerve commotion is a kind of alarm-bell to 
the mind, and leads to investigation of the cause by 
the latter. 

The cause or stimulus is always a sense-object 
acting upon the appropriate special sense. 

I call attention here to the fact that there are two 
kinds of sense-objects. 

1. Those that are in nature, correlated to the 
special senses — as sights, sounds, odors, etc. 

These naturally and directly impress the corre- 
sponding senses. 

2. Those which, though sense-objects in them- 
selves, are but signs of other sense-objects which are 
not now present to the senses, such as words, spoken 
or written, also sentences, figures, scientific formulae, 
etc. They have no existence for their own sake, but 
are intended to represent to mind that for which they 
are used as signs. At this stage of the subject how- 
ever it is sufficient to treat word-signs as we do real 
objects in nature, i. e., as things that are capable of 
producing nervous impression, e. g. A mountain is 



-4 MENTAL CALISTHENICS: 

an object to be seen, so is the word mountain^ or if 
spoken, it is heard and becomes a sense-object to 
the hearing. Although the first phase of conscious 
impression is very indefinite it serves to — 

II. Arrest attention, and at this point begins the 
process of record-making, so important to (after) 
recollection. 

Let ns try to get a clear understanding of what 
attention is, and how we exercise it. 

1. Attention is to special sense and mind what 
tension is to the muscles. If I grasp and hold 
a weight steadily at arm's length, there is tension of 
muscle, an application of the strength of certain 
muscles to the weight. So, too, in attention, certain 
nerve particles and tracts are impressed. They are 
then held steadily in an attitude suitable to the con- 
tinuance of the impression, until the mind clearly 
perceives. 

Attention is to future recollection what the act 
of taking a negative is to the future picture to be 
taken from it. If the negative is defective, so will 
the picture be. 

The negative is prepared by exposing a sensi- 



OR PHYSIOLOGICAL MEMORY. 25 

tire plate to light and shadow reflected from the 
original object. The plate and object must be held 
in such relation to one another that the lines of 
light and shade fall steadily in the same places upon 
the sensitive plate. If there is movement in either 
the negative will be blurred, and the picture imper- 
fect and perhaps unrecognizable. 

So if attention is unsteady, turning from one 
object to another, the impression will be dim and 
confused. ' This • is why mind- wandering makes 
recollection almost, if not quite, impossible, because 
the negative, or record in the nerves concerned is a 
combination, — a mixture, very much as if I were to 
write a dozen letters upon the same place. 

Attention, then, may be said to be the fixation of 
the sense concerned upon the stimulating object, and 
the undivided direction of the mind towards the 
impression then present to consciousness. 

2. Attention in its process is both Analytic and 
Synthetic. 

There is no such thing as attention in general — 
it is always particular, if it is attention at all. 

The limit of one act of perfect attention is very 



26 MENTAL CALISTHENICS; 

small. This you may verify by placing a few mar- 
bles on a table, then try how many you can perceive 
by one act of attention, and you will find that five 
or six is the utmost limit. Even with these num- 
bers you will find yourself grouping into two, and 
three, three, and three, etc. 

Or if you study a landscape, or any large collec- 
tion of objects, you take them one at a time. There 
is first a general impression of the whole, or a con- 
siderable part of it, but the moment that attention 
begins, it fixes upon particular features to the exclu- 
sion of all others, e. g., A landscape may be the 
study. It contains a number of objects. You 
immediately begin to analyze the scene by fixing 
upon some prominent object. Suppose it is a tree. 
You observe that it is a green tree, perhaps the kind 
of tree — its shape — where in the landscape it is 
situated, etc. Having completed the study to your 
satisfaction, your eye falls upon something else near 
the tree which you now study to the exclusion of 
every other object. Having acquired a distinct 
perception of the latter, you have now a scene of 
two objects distinctly perceived. You know them 



OR PHYSIOLOGICAL MEMORY. 2'i 

individually and unitedly — that is, in the particular 
relation in which you observed them to exist. 

You have therefore two perceptions in one. The 
union of the two into one (complex perception) has 
been effected by fixing the attention upon their rela- 
tion, which has also become a matter of perception. 
This relation can have no existence apart from the 
objects related. It is no part of the objects, and yet 
is a part of the general effect of the scene, and with- 
out it there can be no certain recollection. (I shall 
have occasion to refer to this matter again, so drop 
it for the present.) 

In pursuing the process of attention the next 
object is taken up in a similar way with its relations 
to the one just previously present to mind, and so 
throughout the whole landscape. Hence, as I have 
said, attention is both analytic and synthetic. It 
severs a whole into parts, and again rebuilds, as it 
advances. 

I have used an illustration of sight-objects — but 
the student will readily see that the same principles 
apply in relation to all kinds of sense-objects although 
they may be ever so much mixed. 



28 MENTAL CALISTHENICS; 

3. Attention is of two kinds — 

(1) Involuntary or spontaneous. ■( 2) Voluntary. 

In the former the interesting nature of the objects 
of attention is such that they compel attention. In 
the latter, they are so uninteresting that you must 
compel attention, if you pay attention at all. 

In the former the process of attention is sure to 
be perfectly natural — in the latter it will almost cer- 
tainly be artificial. Indeed, these two have been 
called respectively natural and artificial attention, 
which is incorrect, however, unless it can be shown 
that man does not possess the power of volition in 
attention. If man is to "get wisdom, and with all 1 ' 
his getting to "get under standing, 1 ' as Solomon ad- 
vises, he certainly must exercise some will power and 
2^ay attention where he is not compelled to do so 
by the very nature of the subject. 

It has been said that in voluntary attention we 
" clothe our subject with an interest that it does not 
naturally possess." This is not so. If it were it 
would be a process of attention to the matter in ques- 
tion and something else. In other words it would 
be putting sugar in the coffee to make it palatable, 



OR PHYSIOLOGICAL MEMORY. 29 

then declaring that the taste was that of pure 
coffee. 

During the process of Voluntary attention we add 
no new feature or element to the subject, nor do tee 
adopt any artificial methods, unless through ignor- 
ance. What we do is to pursue the analytic and 
synthetic method already described. 

Voluntary attention is not only superior to the 
involuntary, as a power of the mind, but also as 
regards utility, and results. Yet the two are ever in 
conflict — producing that bane of most persons, called 
mind-wandering. There are two phases of mind- 
wandering. Mind-wandering proper, in which the 
suggestive character of the matter of voluntary 
attention has revived a recollection with which the 
attention begins involuntarily to engage itself to the 
exclusion of the other. This is very likely to be the 
case with brainy people of an active nervous temper- 
ament, and the more they know, the more likely this 
is to be the case. The other phase of mind wander- 
ing may more correctly be called mind-balking. It 
is simply a cessation of attention, a dropping into a 
condition of listlessness. It is usually due to weari- 



30 MENTAL CALISTHENICS; 

ness — nervous derangement, indigestion or heredi- 
tary influences. The latter is the more hopeless 
type. 

In such cases there should be wise and persistent 
efforts to restore normal physical conditions, then 
follow the directions set forth in this book. 

4. The act of voluntary attention is two-fold. 

(1) Directive, (2) Inhibitory. 

Even in cases where the will is strong and the 
physical forces in a normal condition, there will be a 
constant tendency to mind-wandering, resulting from 
the suggestive nature of the matter with which the 
attention is being engaged. As previously suggested, 
the nature of memory is such that recollections are 
being continually awakened by what is present to the 
senses and mind in attention. 

That is, voluntary attention drops into the involun- 
tary mood, and the will is led in the course of atten- 
tion, instead of firmly holding control, and directing 
attention where it chooses. 

The Directive force is engaged in compelling 
attention along the line of a certain series of impres- 



OR PHYSIOLOGICAL MEMORY. 31 

sions as thev are made by their corresponding sense- 
objects. 

But who has not found that the mind has often 
been 8 ide- tracked, and that attention has broken 
down? e. g., in reading a book attention has been 
diverted by a suggestion, and although one may have 
gone on reading mechanically, nothing is remem- 
bered of the page. 

How to direct attention has already been sug- 
gested, and the method will be more fully explained 
and applied in a later part of this book. 

The inhibitory power as applied in attention is 
the act of resisting and keeping back the thoughts 
that come involuntarily to mind as suggested by the 
train of Voluntary attention. 

It is probably impossible voluntarily not to 
think. Hence the only successful way to prevent 
wind- wandering is to know how to make the train of 
voluntary attention fill the whole time occupied 
without a break. 

This will be the more apparent from the fact that 
mind-wandering alwavs begins after some suggestive 
perception has been acquired, but before attention 



32 MENTAL CALISTHENICS; 

has fully passed on to the next link in the series to 
be voluntarily perceived. 

There is a natural pause after each new percep- 
tion gained (as in breathing), and this is the point 
of danger. Pass it safely into the next object of 
attention, and you are safe until another acquired 
perception suggests another departure by bringing 
some interesting thought -object vividly into the field 
of mental vision. Therefore busily and methodically 
engage the mind with every possible phase of the 
matter in hand. 

It is very suggestive of an effective method of 
doing this, that the mind- wandering seldom troubles 
one while attention is engaged with nature, i. c. with 
sense-objects as they directly impress us through 
the end-organs of sense. We can study a landscape 
passing from one part of it to another without a 
break in attention; so too in listening to music, etc. 

Why this is so, is plainly this: that we receive 
impressions which are usually much stronger, and 
more vivid than any that can be revived in recollec- 
tion. 

The reader will remember my reference to thought 



OR PHYSIOLOGICAL MEMORY. 33 

objects, which should not only be clearly revived in 
voluntary acts of recollection, but also in reading 
or listening. 

What I mean here, I can best explain by using 
an illustration. 

Suppose I have been traveling for the sake of 
sight-seeing, and after coming home I decide to 
write a book of travels, and in it fully describe all I 
saw, experienced, etc. 

I begin by representing to mind, not the thoughts 
I had, but the objects originally present to it, etc., 
i. e., I mentally repeat my traveling, seeing, hearing, 
feeling, — all that occurred while actually making the 
journey. 

I begin to write, but however charming my style 
and language, there is nothing in the printed page. 
that looks at all like that which was present to my 
mind when writing the book. 

What I wish to convey to the mind of the reader 
of the book is not so many words or sentences, nor 
thoughts (primarily), but a mental view of my 
travel, exactly such, if possible, as I had of it — in 
recollection, as I wrote. And so, to read or listen 



84 MENTAL CALISTHENICS; 

with perfect attention, what is being read or heard, 
should enable one to produce, or re-produce before 
the mind that which would have been present to it 
if he had actually been personally concerned, and 
have afterwards re-produced it in recollection. 

It will be seen from the foregoing pages that I 
hold the theory that we think objectively, and recol- 
lect in the same way. 

I know that from some quarters this theory will 
meet with opposition. There is a natural literary 
pride that causes men to cling very tenaciously to 
old theories, which have been taught and believed for 
ages, as being true. 

Let him who can have an idea present to mind 
without its corresponding thought-object being pre- 
viously and simultaneously present, hold to his old 
theory of ideas, but if this is impossible, then let 
him be open to a better hypothesis — which in prac- 
tice will be found a fact. 

Early in my study of this subject two remarkable 
facts arrested my attention. 

First I observed that young children generally 



OR PHYSIOLOGICAL MEMORY. 35 

have good memories, and that what is learned in 
childhood is readily recalled in after years. 

Second. That the entirely illiterate, whether 
civilized or savage, have as a class better memories 
than the educated. 

I have known men who could neither read nor 
write, who managed quite an extensive business for 
a whole year, or longer, with no records but those of 
memory. 

Again, an illiterate person, other things being 
equal, will generally remember more of what he sees 
and hears than the educated will. 

The Cause of this difference, I find in the fact 
that the one class pays attention, and recollects natur- 
ally, while the other does so more or less artificially. 

The wise Creator has adapted man to his envi- 
ronment, and that environment is one of objects — 
sense-objects, which impress eye, ear, tactile nerves, 
taste, smell, etc. Hence the original matter of all 
attention is composed of sense-objects. But it was 
not enough that he should be impressed by these, 
but that he should have the power to recognize them 
when again present to consciousness. Still more, 



36 MENTAL CALISTHENICS: 

to be fully fitted for bis wonderful home, and the 
employments, etc., for which he was designed, he 
must have the power to make these things present to 
mind in their relative order of time and place. Other- 
wise, the moment he left the door of his wigwam, 
he would be like the Indian, who, when asked if he 
were lost, replied, "No, Indian not lost, wigwam lost. ir 

Thus, he has the power first to perceive objects^ 
etc., as associated, and afterwards to recall them in 
recollection, in the same order of place and time. 

As atteDtion would not be perfect if it did not 
attend both to the sense-objects and their relations 
of time and place, so recollection would be only 
partial and imperfect if it did not represent them in 
the same order. By this I do not mean that a person 
will have the power to begin at the first and recite 
parrot-like to the end, but that being started at any 
point whatever, and by any means that may serve to 
revive the recollection of any one perception of a 
given series, he will be able, readily, from that point 
of view to recall the adjacent perceptions, both 
preceding and succeeding it. This is a feat that 
astonishes and perplexes most people, but is accorn- 



OR PHYSIOLOGICAL MEMORY. 3V 

plished with almost equal ease by all, when they 
understand and practice nature's simple method. 

It would be impossible, to most persons, to learn 
a list of words in this way, without making each one 
a means of reviving vividly before the mind, the 
Thought-Object corresponding thereto, but by so doing, 
and at the same time voluntarily associating them in 
time or place, if the words or sentences do not imply 
some special association ; in the latter the implied or 
expressed association must be a matter of attention. 
To illustrate — suppose you have two words, patience 
and monument, in the phrase "patience on a monu- 
ment:" here the phrase presents a complex object, 
a statue of Patience and a monument, the former upon 
the latter. 

Now, in the recollective act we will suppose that 
the monument is recalled; you mentally see it, and 
as the eye rises towards its top, the statue appears in 
exactly the same position originally perceived. This 
law of association of Sense-Objects or Thought-Ob- 
jects may be simply illustrated by the following 
formulae. Let X, N, Z, be three Sense-Objects pre- 
sented to mind through one or more of the senses. 



38 MENTAL CALISTHENICS; 

Then, attention seizes upon X, and holds it steadily 
under view until distinctly perceived, then N simi- 
larly, then X N together as one complex impression, 
X at the left hand and N at the right. Now Z is 
dealt with separately, then as associated with N, i. e., 
at the right of N, thus N Z. 

Now in memory you have three simple impres- 
sions, X, N, Z, either of which being revived in 
recollection will be recognized as a recollection, and 
not as a creation of imagination. But each of these 
is a component part of a more extended record in 
memory, and acts as a stimulus to revive the other 
part next it; e. (/., if Z is present to mind there is a 
sense of completeness to the right, but of incomplete- 
ness to the left, which nothing will satisfy but N, 
and again X is necessary to complete the record 
of N. 

Let us now suppose that X, N, Z, are not Sense- 
Objects, properly so called, but signs to represent 
some other and real Sense-Objects, as follows: 

X is the 4th of July, N a white elephant and Z a 
balloon ascension — both of the latter seen on the -4th 
of July. 



OR PHYSIOLOGICAL MEMORY. 39 

Here, what attention originally laid hold upon 
were the 4th of July, ivhite elephant and balloon 
ascension. These I express to a second person by 
the arbitrary and artificial signs X, N, Z, while there 
are vividly present to my mind the originals, and in 
the proper order of time and place. 

The person addressed pays little attention to the 
signs X, N, Z, but has brought into the field of his 
mental vision the same sense-objects as are present to 
me, and in the order in which the signs present them. 

But in what do X, N, Z differ from so many 
words or sentences which present to mind three 
distinct, yet related Sense-Objects? In nothing 
whatever. (See exercises.) 

If man were intended for an isolated existence 
he would need no language nor other means of com- 
municating to another that which is present to his 
own mind. But his social nature and relations make 
a means of communication imperatively necessary. 

To make my subject the more lucid, I will sup- 
pose that the first human pair had no word-language, 
but had to invent or discover means of expressing 
their thought. 



40 MENTAL CALISTHENICS: 

Suppose that they first used gestures to express 
pleasure, fear, want, etc., or to tell what they had 
seen, heard, or felt, somewhat as the deaf-mutes 
do. 

Circumstances would arise such that gestures 
would not do, the eye could not be impressed by 
them. Then sounds might be used, at first only to 
gain the eye, by means of the ear, then the gestures 
would be made. 

Subsequently certain sounds or combinations of 
sounds would come to express, or convey to the 
listener certain notions, and back of the notions their 
corresponding thought-obj ects. 

These sound-signs would gradually become a 
language, a means of presenting, or re-presenting to 
the mind Sense, or Thought-Objects, without the 
presence of their corresponding originals. 

All unlettered people use language that is highly 
picturesque and descriptive. The early languages 
of all nations have been so: take the ancient Hebrew 
as an example. That language is rich in illustra- 
tions and figures of speech, because the people them- 
selves had not departed from nature's method, but 



OR PHYSIOLOGICAL MEMORY. 41 

distinctly brought the Thought -Objects into the field 
of mental vision. 

For the same reason Jesus Christ used parables. 

Why is it that we can easily remember a book or 
a discourse, that is full of illustrations, but would 
scarcely remember a single thought, if the illustra- 
tions had been absent? The answer is plain, viz: 
that the illustrations made every thing stand out 
before the mental vision in an objective way, and in 
following the descriptions we build up before the 
mind that which was conveyed by the words; but 
without the illustrations, we did not so build it up. 

In the two cases the nervous, as well as the men- 
tal effect was vastly different. In the former they 
were much as if we had read from nature, instead of 
from books ; in the latter there was the form of words, 
or their sound, present to the senses, but little more; 
while the vivid association of objects, remarkably 
clear in the former case, was lost in the latter, in an 
effort to associate words and sentences. 

My position respecting thinking, and recollecting 
in Objects finds further confirmation in the earliest 
attempts at written language. 



42 MENTAL CALISTHENICS; 

The earliest of these was by the use of Hiero- 
glyphics, which were at first a somewhat faithful 
picture of the original. After these, ideographs 
were used, which however had their origin in an 
attempt to picture the thought or object. The charac- 
ters employed were called Cuneiform, on account 
of their wedge-like shape. 

This primitive picturing denoted either objects 
or ideas. "Life," for example, was expressed by the 
picture of a growing flower. A month by placing 
the numeral XXX. in the circle of the sun, which 
symbolized the day. But the same picture might 
denote more than one idea, or object. Thus the 
circle of the sun represented not only day, but also 
light and brilliance, xlnd a pair of legs represented 
the idea of "going," "walking," and "running." 

By combining two or more of these ideaographs 
together fresh ideas might be symbolized to an 
almost infinite extent. (See Encyclo. Brit., page 
120.) 

Finally, elementary sounds of the human voice 
came to be represented, as well as things, and later 
we came to have alphabets representing all the sup- 



OR PHYSIOLOGICAL MEMORY. 43 

posed elementary sounds of the spoken languages to 
which they belonged. 

I have made this reference to early written 
languages to show that the first attempts were to 
present the actual objects of thought more or less 
faithfully to mind by the use of pictures. 

This evidently shows that ancient man thought 
in objects, i. e., he thought either because the sense- 
object was actually present to mind through the 
senses, or because it was represented by a sign 
which enabled him to revive the mental vision of it, 
or because the thought-object had been revived by a 
simple recollective process. (I use the term mental 
vision, although the term is not suitable to recollec- 
tions of sounds, feelings, etc. Mental sense would 
probably be more appropriate in the latter. ) 

That the most elaborate and intricate thinking 
and reasoning is conducted in this way is demonstra- 
ble. But of course the rapidity of thought is such 
that we are not likely to be conscious of the fact 
unless the mind is specially called to it. 

Our methods of study have generally been such 
that the fall from nature's method into an artificial 



44 MENTAL CALISTHENICS; 

one has been gradual and unobserved, but none the 
less actual and disastrous. 

We begin school life by learning letters, sylla- 
bles, words. Weeks and months are employed in 
mastering the spelling, pronunciation, etc. Then 
come sentences, paragraphs, pages, which the pupil 
by this time supposes are to be learned in the same 
way. And so he learns to read and tries to retain 
the lines in memory. 

I shall have occasion to show that many public 
speakers have fallen into this blunder, and being 
unable to memorize the whole of their discourses 
have resorted to manuscripts, or extensive notes. 

All perfect attention must engage itself with the 
Sense-Object, or Thought-Object, of which the 
words are but arbitrary signs. 

But this is precisely what most persons do not 
do, whether they are children or adults. How com- 
mon it is to find people running rapidly over the 
words they wish to memorize, without any effort to 
realize to mental consciousness the Thought-Objects 
they represent. 



OK PHYSIOLOGICAL MEMORY. 45 

This is wrong— a violation of nature's method, 
and weakening to the natural powers. 

Objecfs are the basis of all knowledge, and the 
nervous organism, represented by the special senses, 
is the physical basis of all mental operations. 

The sense-object stimulates nervous action, and 
the mind interprets the action. Hence the recollec- 
tion must be a representation to mind of that which 
was the stimulating cause. 

But if the stimulus is only a series of sounds, or 
written word-signs, the labor of learning must be 
great and the recollection a matter of much difficulty. 
Perception follows the course of attention, and like 
it, is limited to a small area. It must be a perception 
of particulars. General perception is an impossibil- 
ity. The objects of perception are the same as those 
of attention, while with the relations, qualities, etc.. 
it is even more concerned. You see an object, you 
perceive its qualities, relations, etc. You hear a 
sound or series of sounds, and you perceive their 
■volume, pitch, harmony, etc. 

You feel a pain, you perceive its nature, locality, 
cause, etc. An acquired perception is an acquired 



46 MENTAL CALISTHENICS; 

power to reproduce before the mind the same notions, 
thoughts, objects, relations, etc., as those formerly 
made present by the presence and stimulus of the 
original sense-Object, through the end-organs of 
sense. 

To perception we may add what is called ap-per- 
ception, which is a turning of attention and percep- 
tion inward, upon the nature of our acquired percep- 
tions. It is a perception of our perceptions, and in 
the acquisition of knowledge, enables one to de- 
termine whether or not he really knows, and is able 
to reproduce in mind that which he originally per- 
ceived. 



CHAPTER IV. 



Reciprocal Prebication. 

/ HE subject of the following chapter is of vital 
I O importance in the recollective process. 

The term Reciprocal Predication may be 
new to the reader, bnt is the best term I could find 
to convey to the mind what I mean thereby. 

The old philosophers have said a great deal about 
the association of ideas, and have contended that 
recollection was accomplished by the (so-called) 
laws of association and representation. 

I think the reader will agree with me in taking 
the position that memory proper is not an uncon- 
scious retention of ideas in the mind, that when we 
cease to consciously think a thought it no longer has 
any place in mind. Hence recollection by a law of 

association of ideas is impossible, there being none 

47 



-±8 MENTAL CALISTHENICS: 

in mind to associate together, or to be represented 
by one another. 

I have elsewhere shown that memory is the reten- 
tion by the nerve-particles of an acquired mode of 
behavior. 

This is an effect of which a sense-object was the 
original cause. 

But these sense-objects were associated in time, 
or place, and their association or relation was also a 
matter of attention and perception. 

The original cause was therefore an association 
of causes, a complex cause, composed of several 
simple ones, whose separate impressions joined one 
another, so to say. 

Hence the acquired mode of behavior of the nerve- 
particles was an association of nerve-commotions, 
following one another in close connection. It is a 
habit of nervous action — a kind of Calisthenics in 
which the last act is a point of starting for the suc- 
ceeding one. Or in a word, all the nerve-particles 
originally concerned in a series of perceptions have 
the power to stimulate one another to a repetition of 
their former associate mode of behavior, and thus 



OR PHYSIOLOGICAL MEMORY. 49 

there is brought to mental consciousness and per- 
ception the very same nerve-commotion ( only less 
strong ) that resulted in the original perception. But 
that perception was one of various sense-objects in a 
certain relation to one another. 

Hence, for all the practical purposes of memory. 
and recollection, it is admissable to say that Recol- 
lection is a re-perception of the original sense-objects 
— without their action again, upon the end-organs of 
sense. And each one of these has the effect of sug- 
gesting or predicating the one next in order. To 
illustrate: You have learned that Abraham Lincoln 
and Jefferson Davis sustained certain relations to 
one another and to the late war. Either of these has 
power to predicate the other — Lincoln in this group 
predicates Davis his opponent, or the war which 
occurred during his presidency — so too of Davis. 
or the war. 

Or you may recall some familiar place of child- 
hood — you seem to be there and see it — and all about 
you are the old associate scenes — not all together but 
one after another comes into the field of mental 
vision, and you find that each object has the effect of 

4 



50 MENTAL CALISTHENICS; 

reviving some other adjacent to it— whether similar 
or otherwise. 

Another phase of the same thing is found in the 
fact that sounds, words, feelings, objects, odors, 
tastes, etc., having some feature or element in com- 
mon will predicate one another. 

But sense-objects that reciprocally predicate one 
another must both have become records of memory. 
At least the predicated one must. A common expe- 
rience of this kind is found in similar names. Saturn, 
may predicate Satan. Dover, may predicate An- 
dove)-. 

A new acqaintance may remind you of an old 
acquaintance, because they have some feature, or 
manner, or voice peculiarity in common. Or having 
met two persons together at some time, when again 
one of them is met, almost the first question you ask 
is, "How is our mutual friend?" etc. 

Now, underlying all this reciprocal predication is 
the fact that nervous activities are begun, which were 
present when the sense- objects of your present recol- 
lections were actually present, and that which first 



OR PHYSIOLOGICAL MEMORY. 51 

comes to mind is not a thought or idea, but a flash, 
so to say, of the original object. 

This sometimes leads to ridiculous blunders of 
expression. Here is an illustration: You intend to 
ask a caller to lay his hat on the table, but say, 
to your own annoyance, and his amusement, "Lay 
your table on the hat, please.*' 

This kind of blunder will sometimes occur, when 
the lirst words spoken have been associated in mem- 
ory with both the terms that you have transposed. 
Thus in the above sentence you may often have 
heard the terms "lay your hat down" and "Jay the 
table:" so in the blunder referred to, the revival of 
the record of Jay has stimulated the revival of both 
hat and table, but the latter most distinctly, i e,, it 
lirst arose distinctly into the field of mental con- 
sciousness, and so was first mentioned. The above 
and similar occurrences, indicate two things — The 
law of Reciprocal-Predication, and that it has a 
physical basis. 

A great deal might be written, and many phe- 
nomena of recollection presented, confirmatory of 
the fact of this law of Reciprocal-Predication, but 



52 MENTAL CALISTHENICS; 

I forbear, as my purpose is not to present an exhaus- 
tive treatise of a theoretical character, but presently 
to engage the student with the purely practical side 
of the subject. 

I shall now content myself with a brief statement 
of some of those cases in which the law of Kecip- 
rocal-Predication applies. 

1. All sight-objects that have been perceived as 
grouped together in place or time, whether similar 
or unlike. 

(The same is true in regard to the other special 
senses). 

2. All sense-objects [i. e., of sight, hearing, taste, 
etc.,) perceived as associated in the same time or 
place. 

3. Those having some feature in common but 
otherwise different, both as to themselves, and time 
or place. 

4. Extremes, as light and darkness, vice and 
virtue, high and low, etc. 

The recollective act is in this regard like a pen- 
dulum — starting at one extreme it swings to the 
other. 



OK PHYSIOLOGICAL MEMORY. 53 

This is always the case when the notion revived 
in recollection is relative, as beanty, deformity. We 
judge of the one by comparison with the other. 

It is exceedingly important to understand this 
law. and to bear it in mind, or rather work in har- 
mony with it, when first paying attention, because 
it is by this law that your original perceptions are 
to be brought back in recollection. 

That one's power to recollect depends upon the 
"frequency of repetition" is not wholly true. 

I admit that readiness, or speed in speaking, is 
acquired by it, but to fully know a book, for 
instance, or a series of objects, etc, requires but that 
we fully perceive the Sense- Objects presented and 
their connecting relation, so that each is inseparably 
fixed with its associates immediately next, before and 
after. 

While this law is of paramount importance to a 
good recollection, it is also the cause of mind- 
wandering, so common when we are trying to 
acquire some new perceptions. The new matter 
predicates the old already stored in memory. 

I See Attention.) 



54 MENTAL CALISTHENICS; 

But for the law of Reciprocal Predication we 
should never be able to learn, or use a language, 
nor call things, persons or places by their names. 

The misapplication of the law in learning a 
language makes it almost impossible to converse 
in it even after one can read and translate correctly. 

This indeed is the only reason why some find it 
difficult to learn languages. I will more fully treat 
this subject under " How to learn a language." 



CHAPTER V. 



MOST persons find it comparatively easy to 
remember detatched statements — verbal 
or written, whether in prose or poetry. But almost 
universally there is difficulty in recalling what came 
next in order, and so reciters have had to employ 
prompters- -and speakers, notes. 

They realize that there is a missing Jink, a break 
in the chain, even when the subject is the same, and 
the author glides easily out of one expression into 
another. There comes a feeling of blankness, 
distressing in the extreme. 

What, then, is this Missing Link? 

I. It is the mind's perception of its own tran- 
sition from one point of view to another, during the 
process of attention and perception, as 



56 MENTAL CALISTHENICS; 

1. Direction in time. Tims we may note that a 
certain event took place before or after the Wars of 
the Roses. Then, in recollection the mind looks 
forward or backward from that point or event. The 
direction became a record in memory connecting 
"Wars of the Roses" and the other event, and as in 
recollection there is an exact repetition, in the nervons 
and mental functions concerned, of that which took 
place during the original process of attention and 
perception, this record of direction makes the chain 
continuous, and a blank in recollection becomes im- 
possible, unless, of course, from nervous derange- 
ment, in which there can be no absolute certainty. 

All recollection refers to past time; ordinarily we 
recall particulars of the past by making great leaps, 
and touching only a few points until we reach the 
time desired, when the events belonging thereto 
come up as formerly fixed in memory by the process 
of attention. 

A point in time is treated very much as if it were 
a point in space. It becomes to the mind a locality 
very much as the home of one's childhood or any 
other familiar spot does, and the events, etc., asso- 



OR PHYSIOLOGICAL MEMORY. 57 

ciated with, or belonging to it, bear relations to it 
similar to those belonging to familiar localities. 
Hence we may speak very properly of Direction in 
time of one event from another, and so doing we 
satisfy what may be called a strong mental instinct — 
the tendency to cast abont one, from certain stand- 
points of time, as if one expected actually to see the 
events grouped around in certain directions from the 
point of view, and in some fixed position in respect to 
one another. 

2. Direction in space. 

This will probably be clearer to the reader than 
the former, as it has frequent illustrations in every- 
day life, i. e., in so far as the principle has been 
observed at all. 

If you undertake to recall the notable places you 
have visited, you will probably discover that so far 
as you do it successfully, you seem to take direction 
from one point to another. An illustration will proba- 
bly make my meaning clearer to the reader than any- 
thing else can. Try the following: Select fifty 
names of cities, places, rivers, mountains, or any 
other objects whose locality you know. Mention the 



58 MENTAL CALISTHENICS; 

first name, then note the direction you take in pass- 
ing to the next place mentioned in your list, then 
speak the name, go in the same way through the 
whole list only once. Then go over them from 
memory again taking the direction as when you first 
read the names. Begin either at the first, last, or 
any other word in. the list, and you will recite every 
word with ease. 

Here, by the way, is a good illustration of the 
fact that the true ultimate object of attention and 
recollection is an object really instead of its name, the 
latter being only a sign. 

If I mention the name Chicago — I name a city 
belonging to a certain locality. The mind lays hold 
of the locality, then names it, then passes to another 
locality, etc. But a part of the original process is 
the passage, or transition from one point to another. 

3. Like and unlike. 

The process of thought in passing from one word 
or sentence to another, whether similar or dissimilar 
in meaning, is quite similar to that under Nos. 1 
and 2. 

Opposites, as light and darkness — virtue and vice, 



OR PHYSIOLOGICAL MEMORY. 59 

are the utmost extremes, the one at this extreme 
swing of the pendulum — the other at that. 

The student will readily perceive that this is so 
when he comes to practice my directions and exer- 
cises. 

Attention given to the Missing Link will prevent 
mind-wandering — and will insure recollection when 
desired. 

It is a kind of natural bridge over what would 
otherwise be a mental chasm, or an unknown wilder- 
ness. It is no part of any two associated objects of 
memory, and yet it is united with both, thus making 
them one whole. 

This Link, unlike the tricks and devices employed 
by Mnemotechnists, is natural, and is found among 
the objects to be remembered, not imported from 
elsewhere. 



The following pages are given to various exer- 
cises, intended to illustrate the principles referred to 
in the foregoing pages. 

It will matter little whether the student has fully 
grasped my meaning thus far or not, if he will but 



60 MENTAL CALISTHENICS; 

follow the directions and do the exercises given or 
suggested in the remaining pages of this book. 

His mind will readily adopt the method — for, in 
reality it is true to every principle and law of the 
mind which acts normally. 



CHAPTER VI 



Gxercises. 



«<^5 EFOEE beginning the following exercises it 

' * wonld be well for the student to try to 

memorize a long list of, say, fifty words, by his old 

method. After doing this, let him do each of the 

following exercises, and devise similar ones for 

himself. 

1. Lay twenty-five to one hundred articles on a 

table, without paying any particular attention to 

them. After this is done, begin at some point on 

the table, and observe the article nearest or at that 

point, as the case may be, then speak its name, if 

you know it: if not, note the fact. Then take the 

next in order — notice its direction from and relation 

to the first article noticed. This has the effect of 

producing in memory a complex record composed of 

61 



62 MENTAL CALISTHENICS; 

the two objects and their relation to one another. 
Now take the third, or next to the second in a similar 
way, observing the relation of the third to the 
second, but paying no more attention whatever to 
first. 

In this way go through the whole group of 
objects, after which turn your face in the opposite 
direction from them, and beginning at the starting 
point on the table, mentally see and then name each 
one in the order in which you observed it. 

Now begin at the last and retrace your course 
until you reach the first. 

You will be able to recite the articles in this way 
after once going over them as I have suggested, and 
if so disposed you can awaken a great curiosity and 
gain the reputation of having a wonderful memory 
by doing similar exercises in the presence of friends, 
asking them also to try. They may remember ten 
to twenty, possibly, but you can remember almost 
any number after a little practice. 

Do not give your secret away, but keep it and 
use it. 

2. Take a landscape or picture containing a 



OR PHYSIOLOGICAL MEMORY. 63 

large number of objects, and begin at some point 
and take the objects as yon did in Exercise 1. Then 
mention them from memory — beginning with the 
last — mentally looking at the place where it is 
located, and at it, then the next, and so on nntil yon 
have mentally seen and then named each one in 
order. 

Yon will find a great deal of amusement and 
profit in studying every picture and landscape you 
see in this way. 

If you would puzzle and astonish your friends, 
study some of their pictures of landscapes, or other 
scenery or objects, then ask them to describe the 
picture from memory, yourself perhaps asking ques- 
tions that will be likely to represent before the mind 
visions that are not in the picture at all. e. g., A 
friend of mine did this in the house of one of his 
friends after having learned my method. A square 
picture hung on the wall. He asked them to de- 
scribe it. First the frame; was it round or oval? 
They thought it was oval — more oval than round. 
Now about the picture; were there any trees in it? 
They thought so. Where, etc. ? So he went through 



64: MENTAL CALISTHENICS; 

a series of questions, and every answer given was 
incorrect. 

If you are an artist, or studying art, you will find 
this series of lessons will wonderfully develop your 
powers to reproduce from memory and to observe the 
smallest detail and in the right place. 

The object of the lesson is to cultivate the natural, 
power of vividly representing (or picturing, if you 
prefer the term) the objects of p^dous perceptions 
before the mind. 

3. Take now a long list of words ; we will begin 
with names of concrete things. Bear in mind that 
these words are only written signs, or if spoken, 
sound signs, of the things they name. You must 
therefore revive the mental image, or Thought-Object 
clearly before the mind. 

You must also have these Thought -Objects pre- 
sented in some relation to one another, if you would 
memorize in one reading. 

I will try to illustrate the method clearly in the 
following exercise: 

Mountain ; a great hill, mentally see it 
Tree ; see a tree, perhaps on mountain side. 



OR PHYSIOLOGICAL MEMORY. 65 

Cow ; see her, perhaps under a tree. 

Wagon ; see it passing between you and cow. 

Eagle ; see it flying over wagon. 

Book ; beside you on table as you look at eagle, etc. 

Dog ; under table. 

Hat ; lying beside dog. 

Surplice ; in the hat. 

Steamboat ; on which you now see the hat and surplice. 

Brooch ; on deck, yoxisee it lying there. 

Shore ; seen from bow of boat. 

Stars ; arrest attention as you look landward. 

Steeple ; rises against the sky as you look. 

Pavement ; at base of steeple, you see it. 

Goat ; up in the belfry. 

Cart ; hitched to goat; may be in street. 

Pencil ; back of goafs ears. 

Esquimaux ; using same pencil. 

Iceberg ; ice mountain rises in vicinity of Esquimaux. 

Canoe ; at base of iceberg. 

Garden ; on shore. 

Mansion ; in garden. 

Bicycle ; leaning against mansion. 

Maiden ; sitting near bicycle. 



06 MENTAL CALISTHENICS; 

Now close the book, and recall the last object, 
the maiden seated just as you had her placed in first 
going through the list of words. Make no attempt 
to recall the word, but only try to revive the repre- 
sentation of the girl herself — when you have accom- 
plished this, speak the word or name. 

Now, mentally look in the direction of the next 
object, and you will instantly revive the image of the 
bicycle — then name it. Now, what next to bicycle? 
That against which it leans — mansion, etc. 

Go thus through the whole list. Then take it in 
the opposite order. Now start at some central point 
and go either way — thus take Brooch as the point 
of starting. What next before it? Steam-boat, on 
whose deck you saw it. What after it? Shore, for, 
as you stood on deck when you saw the Brooch, you 
looked off upon the shore. 

Go thus through the list as your own mind may 
dictate, and you will be delighted to find that you 
can recall every word, and in any order, after only 
one reading. 

Make occasional lists for yourself, as a pastime, 
and learn in the same way. 






OR PHYSIOLOGICAL MEMORY. 67 

You will find it almost equally easy to learn for- 
eign words in this way, and when learned you will 
use them as readily as your mother tongue, so far as 
the meaning is concerned. Of course you may find 
a little difficulty with the pronunciation, but even 
this will be quickly overcome. 

Be careful to observe the exact form of the words 
as to spelling, syllables, etc. Notice, also, how the 
sounds are formed by the linguistic organs. 

When learning a foreign vocabulary, or indeed 
any new word even of your own language, always 
get the definition first, and from it revive before the 
mind the Thought-Object When this is satisfactorily 
accomplished, turn attention upon the foreign word, 
and speak it. Now, fix the mental vision upon the 
object and speak its foreign name, but do not again 
refer to the definition of the word — because the 
object is the only definition you need. The following 
example will illustrate my meaning and the value of 
the method. 

Take the German word Baum. If you do not 
understand German, this word means nothing to you, 
but if I point at a tree and say the German name is 



68 MENTAL CALISTHENICS; 

Baum, you instantly understand the word. It is in 
this way that the English word tree was learned. 

Vocabularies are mostly learned from books — the 
foreign word followed by the English definition ; and 
so you would have it thus — Baum, a tree. Now, by 
the law of Reciprocal-Predication, Objects that are 
perceived in immediate association of place or time, 
predicate one another. Hence these two words Ba u m, 
and tree, which are in themselves two objects of sight, 
irrespective of their meaning, and the tendency is to 
recall the other whenever one of these words is 
present to mind, so the student has to translate into 
his own language to get the meaning. This accounts 
for the strange fact that most persons can translate 
correctly long before they can speak the language. 

To a student who blunders into this false but very 
common method, Baum (the word) means tree (the 
word), which is not at all true; but baum means 
the same object as tree does, just as fox and reynard 
mean the same animal; and so either word should 
enable the student directly to revive the appearance 
of the object. 

In learning the following or any list of foreign. 



OR PHYSIOLOGICAL MEMORY. 69 

or other words, be careful to revive the Thought- 
Object, then speak the corresponding word. 

I have put the definitions first as they should 
always be placed, that you may get the Object clearly 
presented to mind before attention becomes at all 
engaged with the foreign word. If possible, never 
refer to the definition a second time, but engage 
yourself only with the Objects and the corresponding 
foreign words. 

The following is a list of German words, and 
definitions : 

Horse (see him) Pferde. 

Eye (see eye of horse) Auge. 

Face (in which eye is set) Gesicht. 

Head (belonging to above face) Haupt. 

Leg (of same animal) Bein. 

Leaf (on ground by leg) Blatt. 

Street (in which the leaf lies) Strasse. 

Mansion (across the street) .... Wohn-haus. 

Window (one in mansion) Fenster. 

Room (Just inside the window) .... Zimmer. 

Boy (in the room) Knaben. 

Money (boy counting it) Geld. 



70 MENTAL CALISTHENICS; 

Coat (worn by the boy) Rock. 

Chair (under coat) Stuhl. 

Stove (near the chair) Oven. 

Picture (on wall beyond stove) Bildniss. 

Woman (sitting below picture) Frau. 

Dog (by woman's side) Hund. 

Now. if you have got the objects properly asso- 
ciated, you can pass them before the mind without 
mentioning any word. Run over the list in this way 
forward and backward. Then begin either with the 
first, or last object of the list, as you may fancy, then 
speak the German name, then take the next object, 
and so on to the end. 

Be careful not to allow yourself to try to recall 
the word before the corresponding Object is clearly 
before the mind. 

Be careful also not to allow yourself to think or 
speak the corresponding English word, in connection 
with the foreign word, under any circumstances. If, 
for any reason, it becomes necessary to use corre- 
sponding words of different languages in close con- 
nection with one another, always make the corre- 
sponding Thought -Object intervene; e. g.. if you wish 



OR PHYSIOLOGICAL MEMORY. <1 

verbally to explain a foreign word, first revive the 
Thought-Object before the mind — then call it by the 
corresponding English name. This method may 
appear at first thought to be cumbersome, and round 
about, but it is really the direct, and shortest road to 
the best results. It is, indeed, the only way to make 
the wonderful law of Reciprocal-Predication per- 
fectly serve the purposes of Recollection. 

The principles employed in learning, and recol- 
lecting words are also applicable to figures. But it 
must be borne in mind that figures, for the most part, 
are to be treated simply as objects without any refer- 
ence to how many individual things they indicate. 
In the Arabic notation the signs are entirely arbi- 
trary, and bear no resemblance to that which they 
indicate, 1. perhaps excepted. In the Roman notation 
there is some suggestion of the number meant, by the 
character used, thus, III means three, V, five, then 
IY, four, VI, six, etc. 

To learn a long series of Arabic numerals, treat 
them just as you would as many toys, or other objects, 
arranged in a line; i, <?., observe the first character, 
then the one next it, then take these two together, 



72 MENTAL CALISTHENICS; 

etc. Thus, in the number 897,654, you have first 8, 
the S-like figure, then 9, a cipher head with a tail; 
now you have 89 ; next is 7, one with a straight head 
to left; now you have 97, two figures with heads; 
now 6, etc., to end. Learn the following numbers, in 
this way, by one reading. Then recite forward and 
backward. 

You have probably observed that you have always 
been able to easily remember the first of a series, but 
could not clearly recall the following ones. This is 
due to the fact that attention is generally fully fixed 
upon the first character, but as soon as you begin to 
take up the following figures, attention is dissipated 
by seeing dimly several figures at a time, which is 
similar, in its effect, upon the recording property of 
the nerves engaged therewith, to that produced upon 
vision by writing a dozen characters on the same 
half inch of paper, and upon one another. 

But the method just described enables the stu- 
dent to confine attention to the character desired, 
and to so connect it, in a combined record, with 
the preceding one, that recollection becomes a cer- 
tainty. 



OR PHYSIOLOGICAL MEMORY. 



73 



Carefully learn the following exercises by this 
method, taking half of them at one reading. 

(1) 724389562043582 4. 

(2)7A90XW. 4B5N13 K+4— 1+3. 

The following diagram represents a Chess Board 
with the squares numbered, and the numbers fol- 
lowing it indicate the moves of the knight, beginning 
with any square, and by the ordinary way of moving, 
placing him once in every square, and finally ending 
where you began. 




74 MENTAL CALISTHENICS; 

This is supposed to be quite a feat of memory, 
but it is very easy and simple, as you will see. 

The figures indicate the moves, from square Xo. 
1, back to 1 again, but you will see that having 
learned the moves in this order you can begin at any 
one of the numbers, and move either in the forward 
or backward order. 

The moves of the knight from 1, placing him 
once in every square on the board and ending at 1, 
are the following: 



1, 


11, 


5, 


15, 


32, 


47, 


64, 


54. 


60, 


50, 


35, 


41, 


26, 


9, 


3, 


13. 


7, 


24, 


39, 


56, 


62, 


45, 


30, 


20. 


37, 


22, 


28, 


38, 


21, 


36, 


19, 


25. 


10, 


4, 


14, 


8, 


23, 


40, 


55, 


61. 


51, 


57, 


42, 


59, 


53, 


63, 


48, 


31, 


16, 


6, 


12, 


2, 


17, 


34, 


49, 


43. 


58, 


52, 


46, 


29, 


44, 


27, 


33, 


18,- 



You will find this easy to learn, and can use it to 
surprise your friends. 

The following may also be used, as an exercise. 
It represents the ratio of the circumference to the 



OR PHYSIOLOGICAL MEMORY. 75 

diameter of a circle carrried out to two hundred 
places. 

3.141592653589793238402643383279502884197 
1693993751058720764944592307816406286208998 
6280348253421170679821480865132823066470938 
4460955058223172535940812848111745028410270 
193852110555904462294895493038-h 

Make occasional exercises for yourself or get 
your friends to do so ; then have a contest with them 
in learning the figures. Do not give away the secret, 
and you can have lots of fun of this kind. 

It is important to have a good recollection of 
numbers as they are so frequently used. In book- 
keeping it is very important to be able to remember 
the pages on which certain accounts are written, 
without having to look at the index book, and this 
you can do by my method. 

It also enables one to remember the page of a 
book; number of hymn; chapter of Bible; text, etc., 
with ease. 

The above method might be employed with suc- 
cess in remembering dates, but as a date means a 
definite point in time, it is better to remember the 



76 MENTAL CALISTHENICS. 

point according to the Time Measure given else- 
where, and then name it by giving the appropriate 
figures. 

The student will readily see that all kinds of 
signs and formula? can be learned in the manner 
described herein. 



CHAPTEE VII. 



^ates. 



[ TOW to remember dates is worthy of some 
\ J. special attention in a work of this kind. 
Most students of history find it difficult to 
remember dates, and have resorted to all sorts of 
devices to aid the memory in retaining and Recol- 
lection in reproducing them. Mnemotechnists have 
expended all their arts and trickery to this end, but 
with little or no real benefit to those using their 
schemes. 

It is very evident to me that they have failed to 
grasp the real import and use of a date, and until we 
understand their true import no device can be of 
much service. Most students of history hitch the 
date on to the end of a sentence and try to fix the 

number in memory simply as a number, and so the 

77 



78 MENTAL CALISTHENICS; 

mind and basis of memory (the nervous system) are 
not impressed with what we may call the Sense- 
Object, or Thought- Object represented by the date. 

What is a date? It is a number composed of one 
or more numerals, and indicating a particular year 
before or after some other one which is taken as a 
starting point of the numeration, as the supposed 
date of creation, and the birth of Christ, — or, in a 
word, a date directs the mind to a definite point in 
Time. But if a point in time can be represented by 
a date or any other means, then Time itself should 
be represented in some way to the mind, and also to 
sight. 

If a date is a point — time as a whole is length, 
and such is the general conception of it. We say 
"A long time — a short time." So long before or 
after a given date. 

Elsewhere will be found my Time Measure, 
which represents twenty centuries following the 
Birth of Christ. Each section of the measure rep- 
resents 1,000 years. The central point of each 
represents 500 years. I have drawn a perpendicular 
line through them to assist the eye. Then the 



OR PHYSIOLOGICAL MEMORY. 79 

hundred-year points have lines reaching entirely 
across the measure. The fifty-year points have lines 
extending a little below the central horizontal line, 
and the ten-year points in each century are indicated 
by shorter lines. 

This is sufficiently minute for all ordinary pur- 
poses. 

Study the measure a little until you can readily 
represent it before the mind in recollection, i. e. until 
you can mentally see the two 1,000-year measures; 
also their central points, and the century points. 

This device will be found very satisfying to the 
mind, being in harmony with the notion of length 
and enabling the student of history to refer to a 
definite point whenever a date is presented to sight 
and mind. Thus the date of the Dark Ages, A. D. 
•476. means a point on the Time Measure just a little 
before the 500-year point, or in the 5th century and 
3d decade after the 50-year point, 

Again, the Dark Ages ended A. D. 1076, or at the 
same point in the 11th century, i. e. in the first 
century space of the second thousand-year measure. 

The discovery of America by Columbus A. D. 



80 MENTAL CALISTHENICS; 

1492, in the space just after the 15th century point 
and in the last decade. 

Now if asked one of these dates, you will recall 
the particular point in time of the event, and will 
then express it by the corresponding numerals. 

What is the date of the beginning of the Dark 
Ages? Let the mental eye fall upon the point in 
your measure where they began, and you see that it 
is A. D. 476. You will pursue the same method 
with all dates. 

Another advantage in the use of the Time 
Measure will be found in the study of contempo- 
raneous history. 

It will be presented to mind as lying between 
two extreme points. All the dates will therefore lie 
between these extremes. Thus the study of French 
and German history, for the same space of time, 
would engage the mind with date points all lying in 
the same section of the Time Measure. 

Again, the relative position of dates more or less 
remote from one another will be instantly grasped. 

I need not multiply words respecting the utility 



OR PHYSIOLOGICAL MEMORY. 



81 



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82 MENTAL CALISTHENICS. 

and naturalness of the Time Chart. The intelligent 
reader will readily understand and use it. 

I have given only a measure for Time subsequent 
to the Birth of Christ, but the student can readily 
make a similar measure for himself to be used for 
dates prior to the Birth of Christ. Or, indeed, he 
need not even make such a measure on paper, as he 
will fmd after using the one given in this book for a 
while, but can mentally perceive the whole 4,000 
years thrown into four sections, like the two given 
herein, then he can number either from creation or 
from the Birth of Christ. 

I submit the Time Measure with the confidence 
that others will find in its use as much pleasure and 
profit as I have done. 

Elsewhere I give suggestions regarding how to 
fix fads of history in memory. 



CHAPTEE VIII 



^emoranba, etc. 



WHO has not had difficulty in remembering 
items of business, errands, etc? The 
slip of paper containing the items is 
almost universally employed, and even then how fre- 
quently does a "devoted husband," for instance, slip 
his memo, into his vest pocket, and never think of 
it again until his wife asks him if he brought the 
beefsteak, etc. "O, my poor memory!" Poor non- 
sense! His memory did not contain the business at 
any time, first or last. He simply heard his wife 
speak certain words, then perhaps he wrote them; 
then to more utterly rob memory of anything that 
it might hold, and revive in recollection, he stuck 
the slip in his pocket, hoping to remember it. 

Now I shall show that he has violated even the 

83 



84 MENTAL CALISTHENICS; 

simplest law respecting memory. That which he 
was to remember was a matter of business, i. e. the 
doing of some business; but he turned attention 
from it, to the words on paper, and the paper placed 
in his pocket. 

Let us analyze this matter of business. Suppose 
it is to go to Jones', on leaving his office and get a 
pound of tea, to Brown's for a beefsteak, and to 
White's for a spool of silk. Observe: This 
business is to begin just as he leaves the office ; from 
the office door he goes in a certain direction to 
Jones', where he asks for, and sees put up, a pound 
of tea. Thence he goes to Brown's, orders and sees 
beefsteak put up, and so with the next item. 

Now, as these are the things to take place when 
he recollects and does the business, how can he so 
fix the matter in memory that there will be certainty 
of recollection? If it is true (and it is) that 
recollection is an exact repetition before the mind of 
what took place when attention was first engaged 
with the matter in question, it is therefore plain 
that in receiving the orders at home in the morning, 
you must mentally do the business ; i. e. , as one item 



OR PHYSIOLOGICAL MEMORY. 85 

after another is mentioned, you mentally attend to it 
with the lightning speed peculiar to thought, 
beginning at the point of departure from your office, 
or whatever you may be last doing, or going to do 
before going home. 

All kinds of business or other items can be fixed 
in memory in this way, then entirely dismissed from 
mind; but when the moment in the day's proceed- 
ings arrives, or you reach the place where they 
should be attended to, they will come to mind like a 
flash. An illustration of this was given me by one 
of my pupils, as follows: he was to bring a certain 
paper with him to the class in the evening, but had 
left it at the office, which he had to pass in coming 
to the class. He had fixed it in mind as above 
described by mentally going into the office as he 
passed, opening his desk and getting it. On his 
way to class he went into the office involuntarily and 
opened his desk before he realized what he had 
done, then took up the paper desired. Thus he had 
involuntarily exactly repeated what he had pre- 
viously done mentally in fixing it in memory. 

The necessity of fixing matters of business, etc, 



86 MENTAL CALISTHENICS. 

in memory in this way, and the certainty of recol- 
lection, depend upon the fact that memory has a 
physical basis in the nerves, and that the nerve par- 
ticles of the special senses concerned, must be made 
to act appropriately, so as to acquire the proper 
modification, or adjustment, or mode of behavior, 
which when again stimulated to revival will cause 
the whole series of Thought- Objects to become 
vividly present to mind. 

And this is accomplished by the mental process 
above described, i. e., the process of mentally seeing 
the whole matter done and in its proper connection. 

I have probably said enough to enable the intel- 
ligent reader to apply the method. Try it, and by 
degrees test the method by the severest trials, 
and you will be convinced of its naturalness and 
effectiveness. 

You will dispense with the everlasting memo, 
and be proud of your reliable memory. 



CHAPTEE IX. 



listening, Reabing, Recitation. 

/ O students and the professions, and to all who 
I O wish to be well informed, and to be able to 
have their knowledge at ready command, this 
chapter will be of great importance, not that they 
cannot succeed without it, but that they will do 
better with it; not that they cannot learn without 
it, but that they will become more learned with it. 
They will know better and know more of all that 
they engage Attention with, according to the 
following instructions. 

A desire for brevity forbids the writing of much 
that might be said, or the use of extended exercises 
and examples. I shall aim at giving only enough to 
insure a clear comprehension of the subject, know- 



"88 MENTAL CALISTHENICS; 

ing that the best exercises will be found in the sub- 
jects which ordinarily engage the mind. 

How to Listen or Eead. 

There are two ways of listening. The more 
common is that of following the words of the speaker, 
simply as words without any accompanying effort to 
present before the mind that which is being spoken 
about. 



The other, and less common method, yet more 
effectual, because it meets the needs of our percep- 
tive faculties, is to treat the words simply as arbi- 
trary signs for things not present to the outer senses, 
but by a natural process, presentable to inner sense. 
In other words, it is a process of constructing or 
picturing before the mind of that which is indicated 
by the words. 

The latter is the only method of either listening 
or reading that fully supplies the material for mem- 
ory. This process of making the different features 
of the subject objective to mind makes them also 
tangible to the faculty of memory (considered as a 
nervous mechanism). It requires a nerve-commo- 



OR PHYSIOLOGICAL MEMORY. 89 

tion, an adjustment of nerve particles of the special 
sense concerned, such that an aptitude to repeat the 
same is acquired, so that when the recollective pro- 
cess is about to begin, and the will seems to search 
for a re-perception of the original object through 
the corresponding, or, more properly, the correlated 
special sense, a stimulation takes place which results 
in its representation to mind; and this as a matter 
of knowledge is not a recall of the words in which 
the Thought-Ohject was originally presented to mind, 
but a re-perception of the thought-object itself. 

A sentence is only an extended word, a sense- 
word, so to speak, which presents not only a sense- 
object, but also its peculiarities, relations, qualities, 
etc., each of which is in itself a sense- or thought- 
object. Thus in the sentence — The apple I hold in 
my hand is sweet. Apple, I hold apple in my hand, 
and sweet, are all word-signs of sense-objects. You 
mentally see the apple. You see me holding it — in 
hand — i, e., the apple is so related to my hand. 

The sense of taste finds an object in the sweet- 
ness of the apple. You determine what sweetness is 
by taste, a kind of mental taste, and yet it results 



90 MENTAL CALISTHENICS; 

from nervous action, as indicated by the well-known 
fact that in the recollection of very delicious or 
disagreeable tastes there is a decided sensation in 
the mouth — the "mouth waters." 

Carefully follow instructions in doing the follow- 
ing exercises. 

Barbara Frietchie. 

(J. G. Whittiee.) 

Up from the meadows rich with corn, 
Clear on the cool September morn, 
The clustered spires of Frederick stand, 
Green-walled by the hills of Maryland. 

Get the imagery as you proceed, also its associa- 
tion. As I read these lines I seem to see the low 
lands covered with rich waving corn, from which 
the ground rises in a gradual ascent; the time is a 
September morn, bright and clear. As I look up the 
ascent, I see the clustered spires of the city, and just 
back of them the green hills rising like a wall. 

Now, after this first reading I can recall the 
scene without the aid of book — cornfields in the low 
lands — the ascent and appearance of the morning — 
the spires and the mountain wall behind them. 
Now, to master the author's words, I recall the first 



OR PHYSIOLOGICAL MEMORY. 91 

Thought-Object — the meadows covered with corn; 
i, e., I mentally look down in that direction, and 
mentally see them ; then I get the words of the book 
by reading them with this picture before the mind. 
Then state the next Thought- Object in a similar way. 
The ascent and kind of morning — then the words 
" Clear on the cool" etc. I now look along up the 
ascent and see the spires, and read " The clustering 
spires," etc. Then the mountains are seen back of 
spires, and I read " Green- walled," etc. 

Now, let - the student recite these four lines, 
beginning with the last. First recall the vision of 
the hills back of spires, now give the words " Green" 
etc. Now the Thought-Object next to the hills. 
Now speak the words, " The clustered spires," etc. 
Now the next part of the scene, and so to the 
beginning; pursue the same method also from first 
to last. 

Now take the next stanza in a similar manner, 
and so to the end. You must be careful not to 
break the connection or association of the stanzas. 

The second verse begins, " Bound about them 
orchards sweep." Your last object was the green 



92 MENTAL CALISTHENICS; 

hills, from which your eye must drop at once upon 
the orchards all about them. This connects the 
parts of the scene and makes recollection a certainty 
by the law of reciprocal predication. 

Learn the remaining stanzas as the first, and all 
the other exercises, whether poetry or prose. 

Round about them orchards sweep, 
Apple and peach tree fruited deep, 
Fair as the garden of the Lord, 
To the eyes of that famished rebel horde 
On the pleasant morn of that early fall, 
When Lee marched over the mountain wall, 
Over the mountain winding down, 
Horse and foot into Fredericktown. 

Forty flags with their silver stars, 
Forty flags with their crimson bars, 
Flapped in the morning wind; the sun 
Of noon looked down and saw not one. 

(Pulled down by the inhabitants when they saw the army approaching.) 

Up rose old Barbara Frietchie then, 

Bowed with her four score years and ten, 

Bravest of all in Fredericktown — 

She took up the flag that the men hauled down, 

In her attic window the staff she set, 
To show that one heart was loyal yet. 
Up the street came the rebel tread, 
Stonewall Jackson riding ahead. 



OR PHYSIOLOGICAL MEMORY. 9& 

Under his slouched hat, left and right 
He glanced, — the old flag met his sight. 
" Halt!" The dust-brown ranks stood fast, 
" Fire!" Out blazed the rifle blast. 

It shivered the window pane and sash, 
It rent the banner with seam and gash. 
Quick as it fell from the broken staff, 
Dame Barbara snatched the silken scarf T 
She leaned far out on the window sill 
And shook it forth with a royal will, 
"Shoot, if you must, this old gray head r 
But spare your Country's flag," she said. 

A. shade of sadness, a blush of shame, 
Over the face of the leader came; 
The nobler nature within him stirred 
To life at that woman's deed and word. 
" Who touches a hair of yon gray head 
Dies like a dog! March on!" he said. 
All day long through Frederick street 
Sounded the tread of marching feet, 

All day long that free flag tossed 

Over the head of the rebel host. 

Ever its torn folds rose and fell 

On the loyal winds that loved it well ; 

And through the hill gaps sunset light 

Shoue over it with a warm good-night. 

Barbara Frietchie's work is o'er, 

And the rebel rides on his raids no more. 



94 MENTAL CALISTHENICS; 

Honor to her! and let a tear 
Fall for her sake on Stonewall's bier. 
Over Barbara Frietchie's grave, 
Flag of freedom and Union, wave! 
Peace and order and beauty draw 
Round thy symbol of light and law; 
And ever the stars above look down 
On thy stars below in Fredericktown. 

The following is very easy if the student will but 
make it objective to the mind. The objects are in 
contrast throughout. 

Cleon and I. 

By Chas. McKay. 

Cleon hath a million acres, ne'er a one have I; 
Cleon dwelleth in a palace, in a cottage I; 
Cleon hath a dozen fortunes, not a penny I; 
But the poorer of the twain is Cleon, and not I; 
Cleon, true, possesseth acres, but the landscape I; 
Half the charms to me it yieldeth, money cannot buy ; 
Cleon harbors sloth and dullness, freshening vigor, I. 
He in velvet, I in fustian, richer man am I. 
Cleon is a slave to grandeur, free as thought am I; 
Cleon fees a score of doctors, need of none have I. 
Wealth surrounded, care environed, Cleon fears to die; 
Death may come, he'll find me ready, happier man am I; 
Cleon sees no charms in nature, in a daisy I; 
Cleon hears no anthem ringing in the sea and sky; 



OR PHYSIOLOGICAL MEMORY. 95 

Nature sings to me forever, earnest listener I; 

State for state, with all attendants, who would change ? Not I. 

Now kindly recite backwards and forwards. 

Apply this method of learning to both poetry 
and prose, whether you read it or hear it spoken, 
and the results will be beyond your anticipations. 

These exercises are simple and easy. I haye 
selected them because they are so. 

Drill yourself for a while with such exercises as 
are vivid and easily pictured, then you can pass on 
to that which is more difficult. 

The following will be a pleasant exercise: 

Memory Bells. 

" Memory Bells are ringing — ringing 
Tn the distance far away; 
Do you hear them singing — singing ? 
Do you hear their silver chiming? 
Do you hear their mellow rhyming? 
Do you hear the dear sweet story 
Of your childhood's far-off glory? 
Do they take you back to years 
Clouded by no haunting fears ? 
Do they speak of sunny hours 
When your path was strewn with flowers ? 
When a rainbow arched the skv 



96 MENTAL CALISTHENICS; 

And when Faith stood smiling by? 
They are tolling — tolling slowly, 
Hear the echoes die away, 
lender, lowly, sad and holy, 
Will you tell me what they say ? 
Do they tell of manhood's dreaming ? 
Do they tell of bright eyes beaming? 
Do they tell of fond words spoken ? 
Do they tell of young hearts broken? 
Do they tell of hopes you cherished ? 
Do they tell how faith has perished? 
Do they tell how night and day 
Cruel Hate has tracked her prey ? 
Do they tell of proud hopes blasted, 
And of life's sweet treasures wasted? 

Memory bells are pealing — pealing, 
O'er the ruins by the way, 
Through the mind's dim chamber stealing- 
Will you tell me what they say? 
How your heart lost all its lightness ? 
How your lif e lost all its brightness ? 
Has your day-star set in gloom? 
Do you hear the voice of Doom 
Mocking every groan that bursts 
From the aching heart that thirsts, 
For the love it ne'er may share 
And the joys it ne'er may wear, 
For the light by clouds o'ercast, 
For the glories of the past ? 



OR PHYSIOLOGICAL MEMORY. y< 

Memory bells, memory bells, softly you're ringing. 
Through years of long silence I hear you to-day, 
Soothing to rest by the notes you are winging. 
O, memory bells, shall I tell what you say ? 
Over long years you are bringing me back. 
Over each step of the desolate track ; 
Over temptation, and yielding, and sin, 
Over the hurry, and whirl, and din, 
Of a life that is dark, and I kneel once more 
At my mother's knee, as I knelt of yore, 
While she tells me the story, sweet and brief, 
Of u the Man of sorrows acquainted with grief,'" 
And I hear the lips that have long been clay 
Pray for her boy as she prayed that day. 

O, memory bells, with your weird strange power. 
You have brought back my mother to me this hour* 
And brought what you hoarded with faithful care, 
Her fervent love and her faithful prayer; 
You have stilled in my bosom the tempest wild. 
And made me again "as a little child." 

Let us give an example or two in learning prose. 

Here is a passage from Nathan ShepparcTs 
"Before An Audience," page 39: "Straighten up 
and keep yourself straight. Walk upright. The 
'shoulder braces' are of no use except to suggest 
bracing yourself up. They will not keep your 
shoulders back, but they will make you keep your 



98 MENTAL CALISTHENICS; 

shoulders back. They jog the will. When you 
straighten up for the first time you will find that 
your clothes do not fit you. Your trousers are too 
short, and your coat won't button. The tailor meas- 
ured you at your greatest shrinkage. This physical 
discipline will suggest and promote physical self- 
respect, and that in turn will promote moral self- 
respect. The attitude of dignity dignifies the feel- 
ing. Straightening the spine stiffens the moral 
vertebra." 

After what has been said in previous pages, the 
first sentence of the above quotation has the imme- 
diate effect of presenting to your inner senses a 
straightening up, and keeping straight, and you 
stand before yourself in a more erect attitude than 
before. "Walk upright" — as a straight man must. 
This is equally objective. Here you will observe 
the golden link of association — standing straight; 
then his moving, walking, is upright. This latter 
sense -object readily leads to an observation of 
shoulders — "the shoulder braces — see them. "No 
use,' 1 "except" one thing: to "suggest bracing 
yourself up." And here you brace up and throw 



OR PHYSIOLOGICAL MEMORY. 99 

the shoulders back as if to relieve the pressure of 
the "braces." 

Go so through each sentence, letting yourself 
feel or act as suggested by the lines, being careful 
to note the transition from one sentence to another, 
and you will be able to give the substance of the 
whole paragraph after one reading, or of the whole 
of any ordinary book so read. 

The reader may find a little difficulty at first to 
make his reading objective to the mind, but the 
effort to do so will amply repay him. 

It will certainly take a little more time to read 
in this way than would be spent in reading simply 
for pastime, but what is so read will be retained. 

I think I have given sufficient illustration to 
make my meaning clear, and I will therefore con- 
clude this chapter by the request that you will not 
criticise, but practice what I have suggested in the 
foregoing pages. 



CHAPTER X. 



Conclusion. 



I CANNOT forbear in closing to make a few 
general suggestions to those of my readers who 
have to speak publicly, whether as reciters of plays, 
or speeches, or sermons — whether borrowed or 
original productions. 

1. Make the matter of your subject objective to 
yourself — know it in that way. Guard against the 
slavish tendency to engage yourself with the words 
alone. 

2. Having prepared for your public perform- 
ance, dismiss the subject from thought, and become 
thoroughly rested before your public effort. 

3. Be fearless, as you will soon learn to be by 
using my method. 

-4. Come before your audience without any 

anxiety — i. <?.. do not work yourself into a frenzy by 

100 



OR PHYSIOLOGICAL MEMORY. 101 

conning the words of your discourse over and over 
immediately previous to your public appearance. 
Amuse yourself or engage the mind with something 
else, so that there will be neither undue excitement 
nor lassitude of the physical organism that is to be 
engaged in the reproduction of your discourse. 

5. Kely confidently upon the law of Keciprocal- 
Predication, in the recollection of your speech. 

6. In beginning, stand erect before your audi- 
ence, with lungs expanded. Let the will put a little 
extra firmness into the muscles, — this promotes the 
flow of magnetism and produces a feeling of personal 
strength. 

7. Now bring up your first Thought-Object 
before mental vision. Then address yourself in a 
full, firm voice to the last person in your audience, 
and in such a pitch and volume of voice as you think 
will be heard by him. You will instinctively use 
the right pitch of voice. Engage thought entirely 
with the thought-objects about which you are speak- 
ing, and do not allow others to intrude upon you 
until you actually need them. Have no fear about 



102 MENTAL CALISTHENICS; 

the recollection of the next point to be made. It 
will come when you need it. 

This method will improve your manner, style of 
speaking, impressiveness. It will enable you to hold 
the attention of your audience simply because you 
are interested by seeing and feeling your whole 
subject. 

Students and Examinations. 

I feel that I should, in closing, say a few words 
specially to students. 

It was during my life at college that the possi- 
bility of such a work as I have aimed at doing was 
first presented to mind. 

Lay it down as an axiom to be religiously 
observed, that your first duty to self — your fellowmen, 
and God, is to keep your physical organism in a 
normal condition, because the mind is dependent 
upon the physical mechanism. 

Eat moderately; exercise your muscular powers 
in order to maintain the proper balance between the 
motor and sensient nerves, otherwise you may become 
an illustration of what Nathan Sheppard has said, 



OR PHYSIOLOGICAL MEMORY. 103 

"that the human plant sometimes goes all to top." 
When this is the case it is sure to wilt soon or late. 

Use no stimulants, or if you will, do so very 
moderately. 

Banish narcotics . Many a bright mind has dis- 
appeared in a cloud of tobacco smoke. 

Study. 

There are many methods of study, and some are 
better suited to some minds than others, but for 
economy of time and strength, and for availability 
in recollection, I think it will be generally admitted 
the topical method is best. 

Choose your subject, making it as objective as 
possible to the mind to begin with, then gather from 
all sources until you have a great store of knowledge 
so correlated in memory, that beginning at any point 
you can go right, left, or in any direction of time, 
place or quality, etc. 

To Leaen a Text-Book. 
Read according to the foregoing instructions, and 
as you proceed reduce it to the briefest possible out- 
line. Then do your supplementary readings under 



104 MENTAL CALISTHENICS; 

these heads. After a little practice you will be able, 
if you wish, to quote title, page and author. 
Examination. 

Many of the brightest students fail in examina- 
tions, from nervous weakness or exhaustion, or con- 
stitutional nervousness, bat the greater number of 
failures result, 1, from not knowing how to lay hold 
of knowledge, and 2, ignorance of how to recall all 
one knows of a subject. 

Some have phenomenal word-memories and 
"cram" themselves with the words they read, then 
spin them out by the yard, but these are not the men 
who make life a success. 

They are frequently failures in the professions 
and elsewhere, simply because they have learned the 
word- clothing of subjects, but not the subjects them- 
selves. 

Nothing w T ill so perfectly insure the mastery of 
your subject as the method I have presented in 
these pages. 

If your subject comes to you, not in nature's 
form, but at second hand, so to say, in an artificial 
form of book, sentence, word or other characters. 



OR PHYSIOLOGICAL MEMORY. 105 

then translate it back to the natural form, as nearly 
as possible ;e. g., if you are studying human anatomy 
you will do it best by having a body or a manikin 
before you. If this is not convenient, remember 
that you possess a natural power to do this mentally, 
and to refer to every part almost, if not quite, as 
well as if the body were really present. You will 
also rind it so with all other subjects. 

If the student will faithfully pursue my method 
he will more than double the amount of his work in 
a given time, insure good memory and ready recol- 
lection, develop all his powers more evenly, live 
longer, and have more real life crowded into each 
year, and instead of dwindling down into imbecility 
in old age to bemoan a lost memory and shattered 
mind, he will have a "green old age," full of mental 
activity. 



FACE-ALPHABET 



BEIXG A DEVICE BY WHICH TO 



CERTAINLY REMEMBER 



FACES and NAMES 



BY 

Rev. G. A. SCHRAM. 

COFYRIG-HT 1892. 
(Ail rights reo e rvod. ) 



face $Upfyabet. 



/ HIS is a device to aid those who have poor 
I O memories for faces and names, and these 
classes are very common. 

Nothing can be more humiliating to a person than 
to be unable to speak the name of one whom he 
knows very well, and quite frequently people are 
insulted by finding you cannot speak their names 
readily. 

This question has given me a great deal of 
annoyance. For years I often found myself unable 
to speak the names of quite familiar friends if they 
suddenly appeared, and what was still more annoy- 
ing, once when out making pastoral calls, and being 
asked by a strange lady what my name was, I could 
not tell her for probably a minute, and possibly I 

should not have been able to do it at all at the time, 

109 



110 MEXTAL CALISTHENICS; 

had I not imagined another person addressing me. 
and speaking my name. 

Apart .from the fact that general forgetfnlness. 
or failure to recollect arising from mental weariness, 
indigestion, poor blood and nervous impairment, a 
poor memory for faces or names, arises from 
inattention, and a failure to connect both in one 
inseparable record of memory so that one will 
predicate the other. L e. if you see the face again or 
revive it in recollection, the name instantly comes, 
and vice versa. 

I need not refer to the many pitiable tricks and 
devices adopted to aid the memory in these matters. 
but will at once say that the only association to be 
made in order to remember faces and names, is an 
association of the two in one complex record. This 
will be apparent if we consider the relation of the 
two in thought and language. The name like any 
other substantive is evidently intended to be a word- 
sign of the face. i. e. the face not being present I 
use the name to indicate which particular counte- 
nance it is of which I speak, I say the name is a 
sign for a particular countenance, because it is the 



OR PHYSIOLOGICAL MEMORY. Ill 

countenance that specially differentiates one person 
from another. Yon always look into the counte- 
nance to recognize a man. 

For some time it puzzled me to devise some 
means of associating the countenance or features and 
name in such a way that one would always be. not 
only a sign of the other, but would also revive the 
recollection of the other, just as the appearance of a 
word revives the pronunciation, and its pronuncia- 
tion also revives the form of the word in recollection. 

Finally it became evident to me that the nature 
of this particular case was such that I must find or 
create something that would be common both to the 
name and the face. 

Accordingly I created an alphabet of such a 
nature that I could so nearly spell the name with it. 
that having done so. I could readily speak the name, 
and that whenever the face was before me. or revived 
in recollection, it would instantly give me these 
letters or elementary sounds of the name. 

In making this alphabet I kept in view the facts 
that things associated together in the original per- 
ception would prediccde one another, that the mind 



112 MENTAL CALISTHENICS; 

perceived locality, and that it also perceived the direc- 
tion taken in the process of original attention: and 
again, that in recollection exactly the same process 
was repeated in the nervous elements and mental 
operations, as when these were originally engaged 
with the original sense-object, with the exception that 
the nervous activities were less intense and generally 
less prolonged. 

Basing my invention upon these principles — I 
grouped all the consonant sounds that were cognates 
of one another as they do in stenography; by this 
means I could represent them all with sufficient 
clearness by fourteen characters. Then instead of, 
inventing characters I took such as were already in 
existence, viz., the features of the face. 

Thus for the cognates F, V, I used the middle of 
the forehead a little above the nose. For P. B, the 
brow. For T, D, the bridge of the nose. S, C, Z, 
the eye. For J, G, the jaw. For K, Q, and C, G, 
hard, the throat. For N, the end of the nose; M, 
the mouth; L, lip; the sound of Ch, Sh, the cheek; 
W, the line from nose ; Y, lines from corner of eye ; 
H, color of hair. Any other arrangement might be 



OH PHYSIOLOGICAL MEMORY. 113 

made to answer the purpose, but this is best, because 
First, thes^ features are usually plainly in sight, 
when looking at a person's face during the first 
meeting and introduction: Second, because the names 
of these features suggest the letters I make them 
represent. Thus the word forehead begins with F ; 
Brow with B. T is suggested by the nose and the 
brow crossing it. S is suggested by sight. X is 
sounded through the nose. H is in hair. B is the 
prominent sound in car. The hard sounds. K. Q y 
C. G. are produced in the throat, etc. 

The first thing to be done is to look at the face 
given on another page. See where the letters are 
placed. Begin with the forehead and call it F. Y: 
then bridge of nose, brow, etc. Then lay aside the 
picture and go through the list from memory — 
recalling first the face, then the features in order, 
calling them by their new names as given in the 
Face Alphabet. You will learn it very readily, and 
in a few days will use it with great dexterity. 




ill 



Face Alphabet. 



COPYBIGHT 1889. 

{All rights reserved.) 



OR PHYSIOLOGICAL MEMORY. 115 

How to Use the Face Alphabet. 

Take my own name to illustrate. Supposing we 
have met, and are introduced by a third party, who 
speaks my name. You speak the name after him, 
looking into my countenance. You catch the con- 
sonant sounds of the name Schram, which are 
sh-r-m, and these in your Face Alphabet are cheek 
— ear — mouth. Without being detected by me, you 
notice these three features in the order represented 
by the consonants of the name, and if attention has 
been perfect (although it need not be of long dura- 
tion) you will be able to describe these features of 
my face and head after I have gone ; and every time 
I am revived in your recollection these three features 
are prominent and in their original order — on the 
well-known principle that the best known arises first 
into the field of recollection. But these features 
mean to you Sch (or Sh, phonetically,) r-m, which 
being pronounced in close connection almost per- 
fectly give the name. 

Always treat the letters phonetically, dropping 
one of doubles, and all silent letters. Any name 



116 MENTAL CALISTHENICS; 

cnn be fixed in this way. Be careful for a time to 
always revive the appearance of the face, when 
trying to recall the name. In so doing the eve will 
naturally fall upon the features which originally 
engaged attention, and these being signs for certain 
sounds, you will be able to speak the name readily. 

If your memory for names has been unreliable 
before learning and using this device, you need not 
hope to be cured all at once, nor without a little 
purposeful attention. And will it not amply repay 
you if. by putting a little voluntary attention into 
the use of my device you shall be able to speak the 
names of persons at will ? 

The great difficulty to be overcome is your 
confirmed habit of inattention to names, which is 
perhaps of life-long standing. This, however, can 
easily be accomplished. Try it faithfully. 

But your special difficulty may not be in remem- 
bering names, but faces. It is rarely that the mem- 
ory is bad for both. I have observed that without 
exception, if the memory of faces is poor, that for 
names is fairly good, and often phenomenally so, and 



OR PHYSIOLOGICAL MEMORY. 117 

t'icc versa. Occasionally, however, the memory for 
both is good. 

If face memory is unreliable pursue exactly the 
same method as that employed in the former case. 
This so engages attention with the features," or some 
of them, that they will afterwards be recognized, 
and besides this a habit of observation of faces will 
be developed, which will be astonishing in its 
results. 

I have observed in my own case that it has 
developed a power to draw a face from memory after 
seeing it only once, and at any time after seeing it. 
Artists could have no better help in drawing either 
faces, or any other object from memory, than the 
instructions given throughout this book. 

Practice the above suggestions on every person 
vou meet, and when alone trv to revive the linage of 
the face, and the particular features representing the 
name, and you will be amply repaid. 

There is another case that demands a little 
attention here, that is the names of persons asso- 
ciated with literature, or important events, etc., but 
whom you have never seen, and probably never will. 



118 MENTAL CALISTHENICS; 

In such cases the name must be associated with 
the event, etc. You must connect the word, both 
spoken and written, with the event. Get the event, 
or whatever it may be, clearly represented before 
the mind. Then speak the name, observing the 
sounds of the syllables, how they are produced by 
the organs of speech, also the appearance of the word 
as written. This process results in several associate 
records in memory, either of which will revive the 
others in recollection. 

You will probably find that you will generally 
have to recall the event, etc., with which you origi- 
nally associated the name, before you can recall 
the latter, and when the name comes up first in 
recollection you will instantly think of the associate 
event. To illustrate: Suppose you have associated 
the name of the "Iron Duke' 1 Wellington, with the 
battle of Waterloo. You attend to the sound, syl- 
lables — form of word, etc., as associated with the 
field of Waterloo. Afterwards Waterloo vividly 
represented to mind will also represent a victorious 
general leading his army, and therewith will be 



OR PHYSIOLOGICAL MEMORY. 119 

repeated the remainder of the original process, which 
will represent to mind the name. 

Should you afterwards see and become acquainted 
with a person whose name had been so fixed in 
memory, you would probably be unable readily to 
speak his name without recalling it as originally 
fixed in connection with an event of his life. I 
recently read an article in a leading review, by a 
distinguished writer and scholar, in which this 
matter was discussed, and he said that he found diffi- 
culty in readily recalling names he had learned in 
literature, when he afterwards became personally 
acquainted with them, without recalling first the 
event with which he originally found them associated. 

This difficulty can, however, be overcome very 
readily by changing the association from the event 
to the features of the face, by using the face alphabet. 

Then when the face appears before you it predi- 
cates the name just as if it had been originally so 
fixed in memory. 

I cannot furnish a proper exercise on the Face 
Alphabet without taking up too much space, as it 



120 MENTAL CALISTHENICS. 

would need to be a number of different faces called 
by different names. 

These faces and names the student would have to 
fix in memory, just as if real persons of different 
names were before him. 

You will, however, find the best of exercise in 
the faces of the persons you meet each day. 

Let me guard you against forgetting to use the 
Face Alphabet, when forming a new acquaintance. 
Your old habit of inattention to face or name, or 
both, as the case may be, will cling to you unless you 
resolve to overcome it by using the Face Alphabet. 



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